167.  LixcoLN.  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  with  a  Condensed 
View  of  his  most  imijortant  Speeches;  also  a  Sketch  of  the 
Life  of  Hannibal  Hamlin.  By  J.  H.  Barrett.  With  portraits.  \ 
13mo,  cloth.  Cinn.  1860 1 

Very  scarce. 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


■.^' 


V. 


l^  u^'^-^ 


Middletan.,  S-trohridae-  &  C?. 


Hirv<-vJ  ^tXo-^ 


BARRETT'S  AUTH£]¥TIC;  EDITIOIV. 

0  V 

ABRAHAM    LINCOLN, 

(or   ILLINOIS.; 

WITH  A  CONDENSED  VIEW  OF  HIS  MOST 
IMPORTANT  SPEECHES; 

ALSO 

A  SKETCH  OF  THE  LIFE  OF 

(OFMAINE.) 

By  J.  H.  BARRETT. 


CINCINNATI: 
MOORE,  WILSTACII,  KEYS   &   CO, 

25    WEST    FOURTH   STREET, 
18  6  0. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the  year  18G0,  by 

MOORE,  WILSTACH,  KEYS  &  CO., 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for 

the  Southern  District  of  Ohio. 


PREFACE. 


In  thankfully  acknowledging  the  readiness  with  which  all 
reasonable  facilities  have  been  aflforded  for  obtainins:  authentic 
materials  to  be  used  in  the  production  of  this  work,  the  writer 
owes  it  to  Mr.  Lincoln  and  to  Mr.  Hamlin,  as  well  as  to  their 
immediate  friends,  to  say  that  he  expressly  disclaims  any 
authority  to  speak  in  their  name.  He  alone  is  responsible  for 
whatever  statements  and  opinions  appear  in  these  pages,  not 
otherwise  distinctly  credited. 

The  sketch  of  Mr.  Hamlin's  life  has  necessarily  been  com- 
pressed into  smaller  compass  than  was  desired,  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  portions  of  his  more  important  speeches,  which  would 
else  have  been  given ;  yet  it  presents  a  complete  and  accurate 
view,  in  outline,  of  the  eventful  career  of  this  distinguished 
statesman.  J.  H.  B, 

f  Gazette  Office, 

(  Cincinnati,  June  18,  1860. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 


Preliminary  Remarks — Ancestry  of  Abraham  Lincoln — Their  Res- 
idence in  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia — His  Grandfather  Crosses 
the  Alleghanies  to  join  Boone  and  his  Associates — "The  Dark 
and  Bloody  Ground" — His  Violent  Death — His  Widow  Settles  in 
Washington  county — Thomas  Lincoln,  his  Son,  Marries  and  Lo- 
cates near  Hodgenville — Birth  of  Abraham  Lincoln — LaRue 
county — His  Early  Life  and  Training  in  Kentucky 9 

CHAPTER    II 

The  Removal  from  Kentucky — An  Emigrant  Journey — The  Forests 
of  Southern  Indiana — New  Home  of  the  Lincoln  Family — Indi- 
ana in  1816 — Slavery  and  Free  Labor — Young  Lincoln  at  His 
Work — His  Schools  and  Schoolmasters — Self-Education — A  Char- 
acteristic Incident — Acquaintance  with  River  Life — His  First 
Trip  to  New  Orleans  as  a  Flatboatman — Death  of  His  Mother — His 
Father's  Second  Marriage — Recollections  of  an  Early  Settler — 
Close  of  an  Eventful  Period  in  Young  Lincoln's  History 21 

CHAPTER   III, 

The  French  Settlements— The  North-West— The  Advance  of  Emi- 
gration— Four  Great  States  Founded  in  the  Lifetime  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's Father — North  and  South  Meeting  in  Ohio,  Indiana,  and 
Illinois — Sentiments  of  Southern  Emigrants — The  First  Emigra- 
tions— A  Coincidence  of  Dates — Mordecai  and  Josiah  Lincoln — 
Removal  to  Illinois — Settlement  on  the  Sangamon,  in  Macou' 
county — The  Locality  Described — Abraham  Lincoln  Splits  Threo 
Thousand  Rails — Another  Removal  of  His  Father — They  Sepa- 
rate— His  Father  Spends  the  rest  of  his  Days  in  Coles  county — 
Abraham  Lincoln  makes  Another  Trip  as  a  Flatboatman — Becomes 
Clerk  in  a  Store  on  his  Return — Leaves  the  Business  after  a 
Year's  Service 80 

CHAPTER   IV. 

Breaking  Out  of  the  Black  Hawk  War — The  Inrasion  of  1831 — The 
Kock-river  Country  Threatened — Prompt  Action  of  Gov.  Rey- 
nolds—Retreat of  Black  Hawk— Treaty  of  1804  Re-affirmed— Bad 
Faith  of  the  Indians — Invasion  of  1832 — Volunteers  Called  For — 

rv.) 


VI.  CONTENXa. 

Abraham  Lincoln  one  of  a  Company  from  Menard  county — He  is 
chosen  Captain — Rendezvous  at  Beardstown — Hard  Marcliea 
across  the  Country  to  OquaAvka,  Proplietstown,  and  Dixon — Ex- 
pected Battle  Avoided  by  the  Enemy — Discontent  among  Volun- 
teers— They  are  Disbanded — Captain  Lincoln  Remains,  Volunteer- 
ing for  Another  Term  of  Service — Slvirmishing  Fights — Arrival 
of  New  Levies — Encounter  at  Kellogg's  Grove — Black  Hawk  at 
the  Four  Lakes — He  Retreats — Battle  on  the  AVisconsin — Hastens 
Forward  to  the  Mississippi — Battle  of  the  Bad-Ax — End  of  Lin- 
coln's  First  Campaign — Autobiographic  Note 87 

CHAPTER   V. 

A  New  Period  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  Life — His  Political  Opinions — Clay 
and  Jackson — His  First  Run  as  a  Candidate  for  Representative — 
His  Election  in  1834 — Illinois  Strongly  Democratic — Mr.  Lincoln 
as  a  Surveyor — Land  Speculation  Mania — Mr.  Lincoln's  First 
Appearance  in  the  Legislature — Banks  and  Internal  Improve- 
ments— Whig  Measures  Democratically  Botched — First  jNleeting 
of  Lincoln  with  Douglas — The  Latter  Seeks  an  Office  of  the  Legis- 
lature, and  Gets  it — Mr.  Lincoln  Re-elected  in  1836 — Mr.  Douglas 
also  a  Member  of  the  House — Distinguished  Associates— Internal 
Improvements  Again — ]\Ir.  Lincoln's  Views  on  Slavery — The 
Capital  Removed  to  Springfield— The  New  Metropolis — The  Re- 
vulsion of  1837 — Mr.  Lincoln  Cho?en  for  a  Third  Term— John 
Calhoun,  of  Lecompton  Memory — Lincoln  the  Whig  Leader,  and 
Candidate  for  Speaker— Close  Vote — First  Session  at  Springfield — 
Lincoln  Re-elected  in  1840 — Partizan  Remodeling  of  the  Supreme 
Court — Lincoln  Declines  Further  Service  in  the  Legislature — His 
Position  as  a  Statesman  at  the  Close  of  this  Period — A  Tribune 
of  the  People -     47 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  Law  Studies— His  Perseverance  under  Adverse  Cir- 
cumstances— Licensed  to  Practice  in  1836 — His  Progress  in  his 
Profession — His  Qualities  as  an  Advocate — A  Romantic  and 
Exciting  Incident  in  his  Practice— A  Reminiscence  of  his  Early 
Life — He  Renders  a  Material  Service  to  the  Family  of  an  Old 
Friend — Secures  an  Acquittal  in  a  Murder  Case,  in  Sjiite  of  a 
Strong  Popular  Prejudice  Unjustly  Excited  Against  the  Pris- 
oner— An  Affecting  Scene — Mr.  Lincoln  Removes  to  Springfield 
in  1837 — Devotes  Himself  to  his  Profession,  Giving  up  Political 
Life — His  Marriage — The  Family  of  Mrs.  Lincoln — Fortunate  Do- 
mestic Relations — His  Children  and  their  Education — Denomina- 
tional   Tendencies — Four  Years'  Retirement 62 

CHAPTER   VII. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  Devotion  to  Henry  Clay— The  Presidential  Nomina- 
tions of  1844 — The  Campaign  in  Illinois — Mr.  Lincoln  Makes  an 
Active  Canvass' for  Clay— John  Calhoun  the  Leading  Polk  Elec- 
tor—The Tariff  Issue  Thoroughly  Discussed— Method  of  Conduct- 
ing the  Canvass — The  Whigs  of  Illinois  in  a  Hopeless  Minority — 
Mr.  Lincoln's  Reputation  as  a  Whig  (^mmpion— Renders  EfiBcient 
Service  in  Indiana— Mr.  Clay's  Defeat,  and  tho  Consequences — 


CONTENTS.  yfi. 

Mr.  Lincoln  a  Candidate  for  Congressman  in  1846 — President 
Polk's  Administration — Condition  of  the  Country — Texas  Annex- 
ation, the  Mexican  War,  and  the  Tariff — Political  Character  of 
the  Springfield  District. — Mr.  Lincoln  Elected  by  an  Unprece- 
dented Majority — His  Personal  Popularity  Demonstrated 68 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

The  Thirtieth  Congress — Its  Political  Character — The  Democracy 
in  a  Minority  in  the  House — Robert  C.  Wintiirop  Elected  Speaker 
— Distinguished  Members  in  both  Houses — Mr.  Lincoln  takes  his 
Seat  as  a  jNIember  of  the  House,  ana  Mr.  Douglas  for  the  first 
time  as  a  Member  of  the  Senate,  at  the  same  Session — Mr.  Lin- 
coln's Congressional  Record  that  of  a  Clay  and  Webster  Whig — 
The  Mexican  War — Mr.  Lincoln's  Views  on  the  Subject-Misrep- 
resentations— Not  an  Available  Issue  for  Mr.  Lincoln's  Opponents 
— His  Resolutions  of  Inquiry  in  Regard  to  the  Origin  of  the  War 
— Mr.  Richardson's  Resolutions  Indorsing  the  Administration — 
Mr.  Hudson's  Resolutions  for  an  Immediate  Discontinuance  of  the 
War — Voted  Against  by  Jlr.  Lincoln — Resolutions  of  'I'hanks  to 
Gen.  Taylor — Mr.  Henley's  Amendment,  and  Mr.  Ashmun's  addi- 
tion thereto — Resolutions  Adopted  without  Amendment — Mr, 
Lincoln's  First  Speech  in  Congress,  on  the  Mexican  War — Mr. 
Lincoln  on  Internal  Improvements— A  Characteristic  Campaign 
Speech — Mr.  Lincoln  on  the  Nomination  of  Gen.  'J'aylor;  the  Veto 
Power;  National  Issues:  President  and  People;  the  AVilraot  Pro- 
viso; Platforms;  Democratic  Sympathy  for  Clay  ;  Military  Heroes 
and  Exploits;  Cass  a  Progressive;  Extra  Pay;  the  Wiiigs  and  the 
Mexican  War;  Democratic  Divisions — Close  of  the  Session — Mr. 
Lincoln  on  the  Stump — Gen.  Taylor's  Election — Second  Session 
of  the  Thirtieth  Congress — Slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia — 
The  Public  Lands — Mr.  Lincoln  as  a  Congressman — He  Retires 
to  Private  Life 72 

CHAPTER  IX. 
Mr.  Lincoln  in  Retirement  for  Five  Years — Gen.  Taylor's  Admin- 
istration— The  Slavery  Agitation  of  1850 — The  Compromise  of 
Clay  and  Fillmore— The  "Final  Settlement"  of  1852— How,  and 
by  Whom  it  was  Disturbed^Violation  of  the  Most  Positive 
Pledges — The  Kansas  Nebraska  Bill — Douglas,  the  Agitator — 
Popular  Indignation  and  Excitement — Mr.  Lincoln  Takes  Part 
in  the  Canvass  of  1854 — Great  Political  Changes — The  Anti- 
Nebraska  Organization — Springfield  Resolutions  of  1854 — Re- 
sults of  the  Election — A  Majority  of  Congressmen  and  of  the 
Legislature  Anti-Nebraska — Election  of  United  States  Senator  to 
Succeed  Gen.  Shields — Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Trumbull — A  Mag- 
nanimous Sacrifice — Mr.  Trumbull  Elected 119 

•  CHAPTER    X. 

The  Republican  Party  Organized — Their  Platform  adopted  at  Bloora- 
ington — The  Canvass  of  1856 — Mr.  Lincoln  Sustains  Fremont 
and  Dayton — His  Active  Labors  on  the  Stump — Col.  BisscU 
Elected  Governor  of  Illinois — Mr.  Buchanan  Inaugurated — His 
Kansas  Policy — Mr.  Douglas  Committed  to  it  in  June,  1857 — 
John  Calhoun  His  Special  Friend — The  Springfield  Speech  of 
Douglas — Mr.  Lincoln's  Reply 127 


Viii.  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   XI. 

The  Lecorapton  Struggle — The  Policy  of  Douglas  Changed — Ho 
Breaks  with  the  Administration  and  Loses  Caste  at  the  South — 
Republican  Sympathies — Douglas  Falters,  but  Opposes  the  Eng- 
lish Bill — Passage  of  that  Measure — Democratic  State  Conven- 
tion of  Illinois — Douglas  Indorsed,  and  Efforts  for  His  Re- 
election Commenced — The  Democratic  Bolt  —  Meeting  of  the 
Republican  State  Convention  in  June — Mr.  Lincoln  named  as 
the  First  and  Only  Choice  of  the  Republicans  for  Senator — 
His  Great  Speech  Before  the  Convention  at  Springfield — Doug- 
las  and  Lincoln  at  Chicago — Speeches  at  Bloomington  and 
Springfield — Unfairness  of  the  Apportionment  Pointed  Out  by 
Mr.  Lincoln — He  Analyzes  the  Douglas  Programme — Seven  Joint 
Debates — Douglas  Produces  a  Bogus  Platform,  and  Propounds 
Interrogatories — "Unfriendly  Legislation" — Lincoln  Fully  De- 
fines His  Position  on  the  Slavery  Question — Result  of  the  Can- 
vass— The  People  for  Lincoln ;  the  Apportionment  for  Douglas — 
Public  opinion 141 

CHAPTER   XII. 

Mr.  Lincoln  in  Ohio  —  His  Speech  at  Columbus — Denial  of  the 
Negro  Suffrage  Charge — Troubles  of  Douglas  with  His  "Great 
Principle" — Territories  Not  States — Doctrines  of  the  Fathers 
— His  Cincinnati  Speech — "Shooting  Over  the  Line" — What 
the  Republicans  Mean  to  Do — Plain  Questions  to  the  Democracy 
— The  People  Above  Courts  and  Congress — Uniting  the  Oppo- 
sition—  Eastern  Tour — The  Cooper  Institute  Speech — Mr.  Bry- 
ant's Introduction — What  the  Fathers  Held — AVhat  Will  Satisfy 
the  Southern  Democracy  ? — Counsels  to  the  Republicans — Mr. 
Lincoln  Among  the  Children 182 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

The  Republican  National  Convention  at  Chicago — The  Charleston 
Explosion — "Constitutional  Union"  Nominations — Distinguished 
Candidates  among  the  Republicans — The  Platform — The  Ballot- 
irigs — Mr.  Lincoln  Nominated — Unparalleled  Enthusiasm — The 
Ticket  Completed  -with  the  Name  of  Senator  Hamlin — Its  Recep- 
tion by  the  Country — Mr.  Lincoln's  Letter  of  Acceptance 190 

Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Hannibal  Hamlin 194 


i 
I 


Lli'E    OF    ABHAIIA.M    LINCOLN.  9 


CHAPTER  I. 

MR.  Lincoln's  early  boyhood  in  Kentucky. 

Preliminary  Remarks. — Ancestry  of  Abraham  Lincoln. — Their  Resi- 
dence in  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia. — His  Grandfather  Crosses  the 
AUeghanies  to  join  Boone  and  his  Associates. — "The  Dark  and 
Bloody  Ground.' — His  Violent  Death. — His  AVidow  Settles  in  Wash- 
ington county. — Thomas  Lincoln,  his  Son,  Marries  and  Locates  near 
Hodgenville. — Birth  of  Abraham  Lincoln. — La  Rue  County. — His 
Early  Life  and  Training  in  Kentucky. 

TriE  name  of  no  living  man  is  more  prominent,  at  tliia 
moment,  on  the  lips  and  in  the  thoughts  of  the  American 
people,  than  that  of  Abrahaji  Lincoln.  This  happens  not 
merely  because  he  is  the  candidate  of  a  great  party  for  the 
highest  political  honors.  He  has  a  hold  upon  the  public 
mind  which  a  partizao  nomination  alone  can  not  account  for. 
This  event,  indeed,  is  the  effect  rather  than  the  cause.  An 
overwhelming  popular  enthusiasm  in  certain  States  where  he 
is  best  known  (and  manifested  also  by  the  assembled  crowds 
at  Chicago,  during  the  memorable  week  of  the  Convention) 
did  much  to  turn  the  poising  balance  in  his  favor,  and  to 
determine  his  selection  as  a  candidate  over  all  his  distinguished 
competitors.  The  popular  response  to  that  decision  has  been 
as  hearty  and  as  universal  as  these  first  demonstrations  were 
unparalleled.  The  heart  of  the  people  has  been  touched. 
The  sympathies  of  the  masses  have  been  moved,  as  seldom 
if  ever  before  in  any  Presidential  canvass. 

What  Robert  Burns  has  proverbially  been  to  the  people  of 
his  native  land,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  of  all  lands,  as  a  bard, 
Abraham  Lincoln  seems  to  have  become  to  us  as  a  statesman 
and  a  patriot,  by  his  intimate  relations  alike  with  the  humbler 
and  the  higher  walks  of  life.  By  his  own  native  energy  and 
2 


10  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

endowment,  he  has  risen  from  a  place  of  humble  obscurity  to 
a  commanding  position  and  power  among  his  fellow-men,  and 
achieved  an  enduring  fame.  The  experiences  of  the  "  toiling 
millions,"  whether  of  gladness  or  of  sorrow,  have  been  his 
experiences.  He  has  an  identity  with  them,  such  as  common 
toils  and  common  emotions  have  produced.  Thus  and  other- 
wise he  has  become,  in  person  no  less  than  in  principle,  a 
genuine  representative  man  in  the  great  cause  of  free  labor. 

This  is  not  the  time  to  enter  very  minutely  into  the  details 
of  the  private  life  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  Still  in  the  prime  of  his 
manhood,  with  long  years  of  public  service  apparently  yet 
before  him,  and  with  so  large  a  proportion  of  those  who  have 
been  associated  with  him  now  remaining  on  the  stage  of 
action,  no  multiplied  and  indiscriminate  relations,  designed 
merely  to  gratify  public  curiosity,  should  be  expected  in  this 
connection.  When  the  grand  era  on  which,  individually,  he 
is  now  entering,  shall  have  closed,  let  the  more  intimate  and 
searching  history  of  all  that  he  has  done,  said  and  suffered, 
whether  as  a  public  or  as  a  private  citizen,  be  attempted  by 
other  and  more  ambitions  hands.  It  is  rather  the  purpose 
of  the  present  work  to  furnish  the  true  and  complete  outline 
of  a  life,  which,  though  not  uneventful,  or  wanting  in  enticing 
suggestions  to  the  imagination,  often  tempting  the  writer  aside 
into  romantic  episodes  and  gossiping  researches,  is  more 
immediately  interesting  at  this  time  as  throwing  light  upon 
the  mystery  we  have  noted  at  the  outset,  and  as  bearing 
directly  upon  the  present  state  of  our  national  politics,  to 
which  Mr.  Lincoln  now  holds  so  important  a  relation. 

The  reader  is  here  given  a  reliable  account  of  the  main 
event.s  of  a  remarkable  career ;  and  should  his  curiosity  at  any 
ptage  demand  more  than  is  given,  he  may  rest  assured  that 
nothing  has  been  designedly  omitted  or  glossed  over,  that 
tends  to  illustrate  the  character,  or  to  affect  the  public  stand- 
ing of  the  statesman  who  is  the  subject  of  this  memoir.  Char- 
acteristic anecdotes  and  personal  incidents  currently  related  of 
hira  will  only  be  noted  in  these  pages  when  clearly  authentic. 
Those  of  questionable  authority,  or  ascertained  to  be  positively 
fictitious,  will  be  carefully  excluded.     No  statement  is  haz- 


LIFE    OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  11 

arded  which  is  not  capable  of  verification.  A  candid  estimate 
of  the  man,  and  an  accurate  representation  of  his  opinions 
and  past  acts  as  a  statesman,  have  been  attempted,  and  such 
as  shall  deserve  the  implicit  confidence  of  the  people,  of  what- 
ever class  or  partizan  predilection.  Facts  are  set  down  with- 
out eulogistic  comment,  and  the  views  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  with 
such  explanations  as  justice  may  seem  to  require,  will  usually 
be  given  in  his  own  words. 


The  ancestors  of  Abraham  Lincoln  were  of  English 
descent.  We  find  the  earliest  definite  traces  of  them  in  Berks 
county,  Pennsylvania,  though  this  was  almost  certainly  not  the 
first  place  of  their  residence  in  this  country.  Their  location, 
and  their  adherence  to  the  Quaker  faith,  make  it  probable  that 
the  original  emigration  occurred  under  the  auspices  of  Wm. 
Penn,  or  at  least  in  company  with  those  who  sympathized  and 
shared  in  his  colonizing  movement.  It  was  doubtless  a  branch 
of  the  same  family  that,  leaving  England  under  different 
religious  impulses,  but  with  the  same  adventurous  and  inde- 
pendent spirit,  settled,  at  an  earlier  date,  in  Old  Plymouth 
Colony.  The  separation  may  possibly  have  taken  place  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  net  beyond.  Some  of  the  same  traits 
appear  conspicuously  in  both  these  family  groups.  One  tra- 
dition indeed  affirms  that  the  Pennsylvania  branch  was  trans- 
planted from  Hingham,  Mass.,  and  was  derived  from  a  common 
stock  with  Colonel  Benjamin  Lincoln,  of  Ptevolutionary  fame. 
There  is  a  noticeable  coincidence  in  the  general  prevalence, 
among  each  American  branch,  of  Scriptural  names  in  christen- 
ing— the  Benjamin,  Levi,  and  Ezra,  of  Massachusetts,  having 
their  counterpart  in  the  Abraham,  Thomas,  and  Josiah,  of 
Virginia  and  Kentucky.  The  peculiarity  is  one  to  have  been 
equally  expected  among  sober  Friends,  and  among  zealous 
Puritans. 

Berks  county  can  not  have  been  very  long  the  home  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  immediate  progenitors.  There  can  hardly  have  been 
more  than  a  slender  pioneer  settlement  there,  up  to  the  time 
that  one  or  more  of  the  number  made  another  remove,  not  far 


12  LIFE    OF    ABllAHAM    LINCOLN. 

from  1750,  to  Tvhat  is  now  Rockingham  county,  Virginia.  Old 
Berks  Tvas  first  settled  about  1734,— then,  too,  as  a  German 
colony — and  was  not  organized  as  a  county  until  1752  ;  before 
which  date,  according  to  family  traditions,  this  removal  to 
Virginia  took  place. 

This,  it  will  be  observed,  was  pre-eminently  a  pioneer  stock, 
evidently  much  in  love  with  backwoods  adventure,  and  con- 
stantly courting  the  dangers  and  hardships  of  forest- life. 

Eockingham  county,  Virginia,  though  intersected  by  th^ 
beautiful  valley  of  the  Shenandoah,  or  rather  by  two  valleys 
made  by  its  chief  forks,  not  very  far  from  their  junction,  and 
inviting,  by  its  natural  resources,  the  advances  of  civilization, 
must  nevertheless  have  been,  at  the  time  just  mentioned,  in 
the  very  heart  of  the  wilderness.  Now,  it  is  one  of  the  most 
productive  counties  of  Virginia,  having  exceeded  every  other 
county  in  the  State,  according  to  the  census  of  1850,  in  its 
crops  of  wheat  and  hay.  A  branch  of  the  family,  it  is  under- 
stood, still  remains  there,  to  enjoy  the  benefits  of  so  judicious 
a  selection,  and  of  the  labors  and  imperfectly  requited  endur- 
ances of  these  first  settlers.  It  was  more  than  thirty  years  later 
than  the  arrival  there  of  the  Lincolns  of  Pennsylvania,  that 
Rockingham  county  first  had  an  organized  political  existence. 

From  this  locality,  about  the  year  1780,  perhaps  a  little 
later,  Abraham  Lincoln,  grandfather  of  the  one  who  now  bears 
that  name,  started  westward  across  the  Alleghanies,  attracted 
by  the  accounts  which  had  reached  him  of  the  wonderfully 
fertile  and  lovely  country  explored  by  Daniel  Boone,  on  and 
near  the  Kentucky  river.  During  all  his  lifetime,  hitherto, 
he  could  have  known  little  of  any  other  kind  of  existence  than 
that  to  which  he  had  been  educated  as  an  adventurous  fron- 
tiersman. The  severe  labor  of  preparing  the  heavily  timbered 
lands  of  the  Shenandoah  for  cultivation,  the  wild  delights  of 
hunting  the  then  abundant  game  of  the  woods,  and  the  exciting 
hazards  of  an  uncertain  warfare  with  savage  enemies,  had  been 
almost  the  sole  occupations  of  his  rough  but  healthful  life. 
Perhaps  the  settlements  around  him  had  already  begun  to  be 
too  far  advanced  for  the  highest  enjoyment  of  his  character- 
istic mode  of  living  ;  or  possibly,  with  others,  he  aspired  to  the 


LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  13 

possession  of  more  fertile  fields,  and  to  an  easier  subsistence, 
witli  new  forest-expanses  more  eligible  for  the  delights  of  the 
chase.  Whatever  the  i-eason,  he  set  out  at  the  time  just 
stated,  with  his  wife  and  several  young  children,  on  his  long 
journey  across  the  mountains,  and  over  the  broad  valleys 
intervening  between  the  Shenandoah  and  the  Kentucky. 

At  this  date,  and  for  ten  or  twelve  years  later,  the  present 
State  of  Kentucky  formed  part  of  the  old  Commonwealth  of 
Virginia.       "  The    dark    and    bloody   ground,"  as    afterward 
named   for  better  reasons  than  the  fiction  which  assigns  this 
meaning  to  its  Indian  appellation,  had  then  been  but  recently 
entered  upon  by  the  white  man.     Its  first  explorer,  Daniel 
Boone,  whose  very  name  suggests  a  whole  world  of  romance 
and  adventure,  had   removed,  when  a  mere   boy,  among  the 
earlier  emigrants  from  Eastern  Pennsylvania,  to  Berks  county. 
Here  he  must  have  been  a  contemporary  resident,  and  was  per- 
haps an  acquaintance,  of  some  of  the  younger  members  of  the 
Lincoln  family.     At  all   events,  as   substantially  one  of  their 
own  neighbors,  they  must  have  watched  his  later  course  with 
eager  interest  and  sympathy,  and  caught  inspiration  from  his 
exploits.     At  eighteen,  Boone   had   again  emigrated,  with   his 
father  as  before,  to  the  banks  of  the  Yadkin,  a  mountain  river 
in  the  north-west  of  North  Carolina,  at  just  about  the  same 
date  as  the  removal  of  the  Lincolns   to  Virginia.     Some  years 
later,  Boone,  in  his  hunting  excursions,  had  passed  over  and 
admired  large  tracts  of  the  wilderness  north  of  his  home,  and 
especially  along  a  branch  of  the  Cumberland  river,  within  the 
limits  of  what  is  now  Kentucky.     It  was  not  until  1769,  how- 
ever, that,  with  five  associates,  he  made  the  thorough  explora- 
tion of  the  Kentucky  valley,  which  resulted  in  the  subsequent 
settlements  there.     The  glowing  descriptions  which  ultimately 
got  abroad  of  the  incredible  richness  and  beauty  of  these  new 
and   remote  forest-climes  of  Trans-Alleghanian  Virginia,  and 
of  their  alluring  hunting-grounds,  must  have  early  reached  the 
ears  of  the  boyhood-companions  of  Daniel  Boone,  and  spread 
through  the   neighboring   couutr3^     The   stirring   adventures 
of  the  pioneer  hero,  during  the  next  five  or  six  years,  and  the 
beginnings  of  substantial  settlements  in  that  far-west  country, 


14  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 

must  have  suggested  new  attractions  thitherward  to  the  more 
active  and  daring  spirits,  whose  ideal  of  manhood  Boone  so 
nearly  approached. 

From  the  borders,  in  various  directions,  hundreds  of  miles 
away,  emigration  had  now  begun.  These  recruits  were  from 
that  class  of  hardy  frontiersmen  most  inured  to  the  kind  of 
toils  they  were  to  encounter  anew  in  the  Kentucky  forests. 
They  went  forward,  fearless  of  the  dangers  to  be  encountered 
from  the  numerous  bands  of  Indians  already  recommencing 
hostilities,  after  a  temporary  pacification.  Here  was  a  com- 
mon territory  and  place  of  meeting  for  the  tribes,  both  of  the 
North  and  the  South,  and  here,  before  and  after  this  date, 
there  were  many  exciting  adventures  and  deadly  conflicts  with 
these  savages,  whose  favorite  haunts  had  been  thus  uncere- 
moniously invaded. 

It  was  not  far  from  the  date  of  the  disastrous  battle  of  the 
Lower  Blue  Licks,  that  the  grandfather  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  with 
his  young  family,  reached  the  region  which  had  perhaps  long 
been  the  promised  land  of  his  dreams.  This  transmigration 
was  certainly  some  time  later  than  1778,  and  earlier  than  1784, 
as  circumstances  hereafter  to  be  stated  will  show.  Boone, 
Kenton,  Harrod,  Floyd,  and  their  brave  associates,  were  still 
in  the  midst  of  the  great  struggles  which  have  given  them  last- 
ing memory  in  history.  Lincoln  was  ambitious  to  share  their 
fortunes,  and  to  fix  his  home  in  this  more  genial  and  opulent 
clime. 

The  exact  place  at  which  he  settled  is  not  known.  It  was 
somewhere  on  Floyd's  creek,  and  probably  near  its  mouth,  in 
what  is  now  Bullitt  county.  The  hopes  which  led  to  this 
change  of  his  home  were  not  destined  to  be  fulfilled.  He  had 
made  but  a  mere  beginning  in  his  new  pioneer  labors,  when, 
while  at  work  one  day,  at  a  distance  from  his  cabin,  unsuspect- 
ing of  danger,  he  was  killed  by  an  Indian,  who  had  stolen  upon 
him  unaware.  This  took  place  in  the  year  1784,  or  very  near 
that  time,  when  he  was  probably  not  more  than  thirty-five 
years  of  age.  His  widow,  thus  suddenly  bereaved  in  a  new 
and  strange  land,  had  now  their  three  sons  and  two  daughters 
left  to  her  sole  protection  and  care,  with  probably  little  means 


LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  15 

for  their  support.  She  soon  after  removed  to  what  became 
Washington  county,  in  the  same  State,  not  far  distant,  and 
there  reared  her  children,  all  of  whom  reached  mature  aee. 
One  of  the  daughters  was  married  to  a  Mr.  Crume,  and  the 
other  to  a  man  named  Bromfield.  The  three  sons,  respectively 
named  Thomas,  Mordecai,  and  Josiah,  all  remained  in  Ken 
tucky  until  after  their  majority. 

Thomas  Lincoln,  one  of  these  sons,  was  born  in  1778.  He 
was  a  mere  child  when  his  father  removed  to  Kentucky,  and 
was  but  six  years  old  at  the  time  of  the  latter's  death.  The 
date  of  this  event  was  consequently  about  1784.  Of  the  early 
life  of  the  orphan  boy,  we  have  no  knowledge,  except  what  can 
be  learned  of  the  general  lot  of  his  class,  and  of  the  habits  and 
modes  of  living  then  prevalent  among  the  hardy  pioneers  of 
Kentucky.  These  backwoodsmen  had  an  unceasing  round  of 
hard  toils,  with  no  immediate  reward  but  a  bare  subsistence 
from  year  to  year,  and  the  cheering  promise  of  better  days  in 
the  future.  But  even  their  lands,  as  in  the  case  of  Boone, 
they  were  not  always  so  fortunate  as  to  retain  in  fee. 

More  comfortable  days,  and  a  much  improved  state  of  things 
had  come,  before  Thomas  arrived  at  maturity,  but  in  his  boy 
hood  and  youth,  he  must  have  known  whatever  was  worst  in 
the  trials  and  penury  of  the  first  generation  of  Kentucky 
frontiersmen,  with  few  other  enjoyments  than  an  occasional 
practice  with  his  rifle.  His  training  was  suited  to  develop  a 
strong,  muscular  frame,  and  a  rugged  constitution,  with  a  char- 
acteristic quickness  of  perception  and  promptness  of  action. 
The  Kentuckian  of  that  and  the  succeeding  generation  had 
generally  a  tall,  stalwart  frame,  a  frank  and  courteous  heart, 
and  a  humorous  and  slightly  quaint  turn  of  speech  ;  a  fondness 
for  adventure  and  for  the  sports  of  hunting;  a  manly  self- 
respect,  and  a  fearless  independence  of  spirit. 

"Pride  in  their  port,  defiance  in  their  eye, 
«  *  »  «  « 

Intent  on  high  designs,  a  thoughtful  band, 
By  forms  un fashioned,  fresh  from  nature's  hand, 
Fierce  in  their  native  hardiness  of  soul- 
True  to  imagined  right,  above  control. 


16 


LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM     LINCOLN, 


This  generation  began  its  life  with  the  independent  existence 
of  the  nation,  and  partook  largely  of  the  spirit  of  exultant 
self-confidence  then  abroad  through  the  land. 

These  were  the  circumstances  and  associations  under  which, 
in  those  primeval  days  in  Kentucky,  Thomas  Lincoln  passed 
through  the  period  of  boyhood  and  youth.  At  the  date  of  the 
political  separation  from  Virginia,  in  1792,  and  the  formation 
of  a  new  State,  this  orphan  boy,  struggling  to  aid  his  mother 
in  the  support  of  the  ill-fortuned  family,  had  reached  the  age 
of  fourteen.  The  currents  of  emigration  had  become  enlarged 
and  accelerated,  meantime,  until  the  population  was  swelled, 
as  early  as  1790,  to  more  than  73,000  ;  and  during  the  next 
ten  years  it  was  more  than  trebled,  reaching  220,000.  The 
wilderness  that  once  was  around  Boonesborough,  Harrodsbur"-, 
and  Lexington,  was  now  blossoming  as  the  rose.  Still,  how- 
ever, there  was  ample  space  unoccupied,  within  the  limits  of 
the  new  State,  for  those  who  craved  the  excitements  and  the 
loneliness  of  a  home  in  the  wilderness. 

In  1806,  Thomas  Lincoln,  being  then  twenty-eight  years  of 
age,  was  married  to  Nancy  Hanks,  a  native  of  Virginia,  and 
settled  in  what  was  then  Hardin  county,  Kentucky.  It  does 
not  appear  that  the  parents  of  Miss  Hanks  e^-er  removed  to 
Kentucky,  though  others  of  the  family  did  so.  Of  the  history 
of  her  ancestry,' we  have  no  definite  particulars.  Her  position 
in  life  appears  to  have  been  not  dissimilar  to  that  of  her  hus- 
band. That  she  possessed  some  rare  qualities  of  mind  and 
heart,  there  is  reason  to  believe;  although,  dying  at  an  early 
age,  and  having,  from  the  time  of  her  marriage,  passed  her 
days  on  obscure  frontiers,  few  recollections  of  her  are  acces- 
sible. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  of  these  parents  on  the  12th 
day  of  February,  1809.  The  place  where  they  at  this  time 
resided,  is  in  what  is  now  LaEue  county,  about  a  mile  and  a 
half  from  Hodgenville,  the  county  seat,  and  seven  miles  from 
Elizabethtown,  laid  oflf  several  years  previously,  and  the  county 
seat  of  Hardin  county.  He  had  one  sister,  two  years  his 
senior,  who  grew  up  to  womanhood,  married,  and  died  while 
young.     He  bad  a  brother,  two  years  younger  than  himself, 


LIFE   OF   ABRAUAM    LINCOLN.  17 

who  died  in  early  cliildhoood.  Mr.  Lincoln  remembers  to 
have  visited  the  now  unmarked  grave  of  this  little  one,  along 
with  his  mother,  before  leaving  Kentucky.  These  were  the 
only  children  of  Thomas  Lincoln,  either  by  the  present  or  by 
a  subsequent  marriage,  hereafter  to  be  noticed.  Abraham 
has  thus,  for  a  long  time,  been  the  sole  immediate  representa- 
tive of  this  hardy  and  energetic  race. 

LaRue  county,  named  from  an  early  settler,  John  LaRue, 
was  set  oiF  and  separately  organized  in  1843,  the  portion  con- 
taining Mr.  Lincoln's  birthplace  having  been,  up  to  that  date, 
included  in  Hardin  county.  It  is  a  rich  grazing  country  in 
its  more  rolling  or  hilly  parts,  and  the  level  surface  produces 
good  crops  of  corn  and  tobacco.  In  the  northern  borders 
of  the  county,  on  the  Rolling  Fork  of  Salt  river,  is  Muld- 
row's  Hill,  a  noted  eminence.  Hodgenville,  near  which  Mr, 
Lincoln  was  born,  is  a  pleasantly  situated  town  on  Nolin 
creek,  and  a  place  of  considerable  business.  About  a  mile 
above  this  town,  on  the  creek,  is  a  mound,  or  knoll,  thirty  feet 
above  the  banks  of  the  stream,  containing  two  acres  of  level 
ground,  at  the  top  of  which  there  is  now  a  house.  Some  of 
the  early  pioneers  encamped  on  this  knoll ;  and  but  a  short 
distance  from  it  a  fort  was  erected  by  Philip  Phillips,  an  emi- 
grant from  Pennsylvania,  about  1780  or  1781,  near  the  time 
Mr.  Lincoln's  ancestor  arrived  from  Virginia.  John  LaRue 
came  from  the  latter  State,  with  a  company  of  emigrants,  and 
settled,  not  far  from  the  same  date,  at  Phillips'  Fort.  Robert 
Hodgen,  LaRue's  brother-in-law,  purchased  and  occupied  the 
land  on  which  Hodgenville  is  built.  Both  these  pioneers  were 
men  of  sterling  integrity,  and  high  moral  worth.  They  were 
consistent  and  zealous  members  of  the  Baptist  church,  and  one 
of  their  associates,  Benjamin  Lynn,  was  a  minister  of  the  same 
persuasion.  Such  were  the  influences  under  which,  more  than 
twenty  years  before  Thomas  Lincoln  settled  there,  this  little 
colony  had  been  founded,  and  which  went  far  to  give  the  com- 
munity its  permanent  character. 

It  is  needless  to  rehearse  the  kind  of  life  in  which  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  was  here  trained.  The  picture  is  similar  in  all 
such  settlements.     In  his  case,  there  was  indeed  the  advantage 


18 


LIFE    OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


of  a  generation  or  two  of  progress,  since  his  grandfather  had 
hazarded  and  lost  his  life  in  the  then  slightly  broken  wilder- 
ness. The  State  now  numbered  some  400,000  inhabitants,  and 
had  all  the  benefits  of  an  efficient  local  administration,  the 
want  of  which  had  greatly  increased  the  dangers  and  difficul- 
ties of  the  first  settlers.  Henry  Clay,  it  may  here  be  appropri- 
ately mentioned,  had  already,  though  little  more  than  thirty 
years  of  age,  begun  his  brilliant  political  career,  having  then 
served  for  a  year  or  two  in  the  United  States  Senate. 

Yet,  with  all  these  changes,  the  humble  laborers,  settled 
near  "  Hodgen's  Mills,"  on  Nolin  creek,  had  no  other  lot  but 
incessant  toil,  and  a  constant  struggle  with  nature  in  the  still 
imperfectly  reclaimed  wilds,  for  a  plain  subsistence.  Here  the 
boy  spent  the  first  years  of  his  childhood.  With  apparently 
the  same  frowning  fortune  which  darkened  the  early  days  of 
Robert  Burns,  it  was  not  destined  that  young  Lincoln's  father 
should  succeed  in  these  first  endeavors  to  secure  a  competency. 
Even  before  the  date  of  his  earliest  distinct  recollections,  he 
removed  with  his  father  to  a  place  six  miles  distant  from  Hod- 
genville,  which  was  also  ere  long  to  be  surrendered,  as  we 
shall  presently  see,  for  a  home  in  the  far-ofi"  wilderness,  and 
for  frontier  life,  in  its  fullest  and  most  significant  meaning. 

The  period  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  Kentucky  life  extends 
through  a  little  more  than  seven  years,  terminating  with  the 
autumn  of  1816.  If  it  be  true  as  a  rule  (as  Horace  Mann  was 
wont  to  maintain),  that  the  experiences  and  instructions  of  the 
first  seven  years  of  every  person's  existence,  do  more  to  mold 
and  determine  his  general  character,  than  all  subsequent  train- 
ing, then  must  we  regard  Mr.  Lincoln  as  a  Kentuckian  (of  the 
generation  next  following  that  of  Clay),  by  his  early  impres- 
sions and  discipline,  no  less  than  by  birth. 

In  those  days  there  were  no  common  schools  in  that  country. 
The  principal  reliance  for  acquiring  the  rudiments  of  learnino- 
was  the  same  as  that  to  which  the  peasant-poet  of  Ayrshire 
was  indebted.  Education  was  by  no  means  disregarded,  nor 
did  young  Lincoln,  poor  as  were  his  opportunities,  grow  up  an 
illiterate  boy,  as  some  have  supposed.  Competent  teachers 
A-ere  accustomed  to  offer  themselves  then,  as  in  later  years, 


LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  19 

who  opened  private  schools  for  a  neighborhood,  being  sup- 
ported by  tuition  or  subscription.  During  his  boyhood  days 
in  Kentucky,  Abraham  Lincoln  attended,  at  different  times,  at 
least  two  schools  of  this  description,  of  which  he  has  clear 
recollections.  One  of  these  was  kept  by  Zachariah  Riney,  a 
Roman  Catholic,  whose  peculiarities  have  not  been  wholly 
effaced  from  the  memory  of  his  since  so  distinguished  pupil. 
But  although  this  teacher  was  himself  an  ardent  Catholic,  he 
made  no  proselyting  efforts  in  his  school,  and  when  any  little 
religious  cei'emonies,  or  perhaps  mere  catechizing  and  the  like, 
were  to  be  gone  through  with,  all  Protestant  children,  of  whom, 
it  is  needless  to  say  that  young  "  Abe  "  was  one,  were  accus- 
tomed to  retire,  by  permission  or  command.  Riney  was  prob- 
ably in  some  way  connected  with  the  movement  of  the 
''  Trappists,"  who  came  to  Kentucky  in  the  autumn  of  1805, 
and  founded  an  establishment  (abandoned  some  years  later) 
under  Urban  Guillet,  as  superior,  on  Pottinger's  Creek,  They 
were  active  in  promoting  education,  especially  among  the 
poorer  classes,  and  had  a  school  for  boys  under  their  immediate 
supervision.  This,  however,  had  been  abandoned  before  the 
date  of  Lincoln's  first  school-days,  and  it  is  not  improbable 
that  the  private  schools  under  Catholic  teachers  were  an  offshoot 
of  the  original  system  adopted  by  these  Trappists,  who  sub- 
sequentl}^  removed  to  Illinois. 

Another  teacher,  on  whose  instructions  the  boy  afterward 
attended,  while  living  in  Kentucky,  was  named  Caleb  Hazel. 
His  was  also  a  neighborhood  school,  sustained  by  private 
patronage. 

With  the  aid  of  these  two  schools,  and  with  such  further 
assistance  as  he  received  at  home,  there  is  no  doubt  that  he 
had  become  able  to  read  well,-tho.ugh  without  having  made 
any  great  literary  progress,  at  the  age  of  seven.  That  he  was 
not  a  dull  or  inapt  scholar,  is  manifest  from  his  subsequent 
attainments.  With  the  allurements  of  the  rifle  and  the  wild 
game  which  then  abounded  in  the  country,  however,  and  with 
the  meager  advantages  he  had,  in  regard  to  books,  it  is  certain 
that  his  perceptive  faculties,  and   his  muscular  powers,  were 


20  LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

much  more  fully  developed  by  exercise  than   his  scholastic 
talents. 

While  he  lived  in  Kentucky,  he  never  saw  even  the  exterior 
of  vfhat  was  properly  a  church  edifice.  The  religious  services 
he  attended  were  held  either  at  a  private  dwelling,  or  in  some 
log  school-house,  or  in  the  open  grove  : 

"  Fit  shrine  for  humble  worshiper  to  hold 
Communion  with  his  Maker.     These  dim  vaults, 
These  winding  aisles,  of  human  pomp  or  pride 
Report  not.     No  fantastic  carvings  show 
The  boast  of  our  vain  race,  to  change  the  form 
Of  Thy  fair  works.     But  Thou  art  here,  Thou  fiU'st 
The  solitude."  t 
Unsatisfactory  results  of  these  many  years'  toil  on  the  lands 
of  Nolin  Creek,  or  a  restless  spirit  of  adventure  and  fondness 
for  more  genuine  pioneer  excitements  than  this  region  con- 
tinued to  afford,  led  Thomas  Lincoln,  now  verging  upon  the 
age  of  forty,  and  his  son  beginning  to  be  of  essential  service 
in  manual  labor,  to  seek  a  new  place  of  abode,  far  to  the  west, 
beyond  the  Ohio  river. 

t  Bryant. 


LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN,  21 


f 


CHAPTER  II. 


MR.    LINCOLN  S   EARLY   LIFE   IN   INDIANA. 

The  Kemoval  from  Kentucky. — An  Emigrant  Journey. — The  Forests 
of  Southern  Indiana. — New  Home  of  the  Lincoln  Family. — Indiana 
in  1816. — Slavery  and  Free  Labor. — Young  Lincoln  at  His  Work. — 
His  Schools  and  Schoolmasters. — Self-Education. — A  Characteristic 
Incident. — Acquaintance  with  River  Life. — His  First  Trip  to  New 
Orleans  as  a  Flatboatman. — Death  of  His  Mother. — His  Father's 
Second  Marriage. — Recollections  of  an  Early  Settler. — Close  of  an 
Eventful  Period  in  Young  Lincoln's  History. 

Early  in  the  autumn  of  1816,  an  immediate  departure  for 
the  new  wilds  of  Indiana  was  determined  on  by  Thomas  Lin- 
coln. It  was  no  very  imposing  sight,  certainly,  as  the  little 
family,  bidding  the  old  Kentucky  home  adieu,  moved  forward 
upon  their  long  and  winding  pioneer  march.  Many  sad 
thoughts  there  undoubtedly  were  in  that  small  group,  and 
perhaps  some  forebodings  also,  as  their  former  place,  gradually 
receding,  at  length  disappeared  from  their  reverted  eyes.  But 
these  emotions  must  soon  have  been  lost  in  the  excitements  of 
their  journey. 

It  was  no  novel  picture  which  they  presented,  for  that  period, 
as  they  advanced  on  their  lonely  way,  for  the  days  required 
to  bring  them  to  the  place  whence  they  were  to  cross  the 
"  Beautiful  River."  The  plain  wagon,  with  its  simple  cover- 
ing as  a  shelter  for  its  lading  of  household  utensils,  articles  of 
food,  and  "  varieties,"  was  drawn  by  a  not  too  spirited  or  over- 
fed horse,  in  a  harness  probably  compounded  of  leather  and 
hempen  cords  of  an  uncertain  age.  In  the  forward  part  of  this 
conveyance,  sat  the  emigrant  wife  and  her  daughter,  nine  years 
old,  while  the  father  and  his  son,  now  past  seven,  walking  in 
the  rear,  took  care  that  the  indispensable  cow  kept  pace  to  the 


22  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

music  of  the  jolting  wheels.  Underneath  the  wagon,  or  scout- 
ing at  pleasure  through  the  surrounding  woods,  was  of  course  a 
large  dog,  constant  to  the  fortunes  of  his  master's  family,  and 
ready  for  any  fate  to  which  their  migrations  might  lead  him. 
Arrived  at  the  appointed  landing  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  it 
only  remained  to  embark  the  little  caravan  upon  a  flatboat,  and 
to  cross  the  stream,  now  swelled  to  f\xir  proportions  by  the  autumn 
rains.  Finally,  after  reaching  the  Indiana  side,  the  adven- 
turers landed  at  or  near  the  mouth  of  Anderson's  Creek,  now 
the  boundary  between  the  counties  of  Perry  and  Spencer,  about 
one  hundred  and  forty  miles  below  Louisville,  by  the  river, 
and  sixty  above  Evansville.  In  a  direct  line  across  the  country 
from  their  former  residence,  the  distance  is  perhaps  hardly  one 
hundred  miles. 

The  place  at  which  Mr.  Lincoln  settled,  at  the  end  of  this 
journey,  is  some  distance  back  from  the  Ohio  river,  near  the 
present  town  of  Gentryville.  Under  the  earliest  organization, 
this  was  in  Perry  county,  of  which  Troy  was  the  county  seat. 
Twt)  years  later,  Spencer  county  was  formed,  embracing  all 
that  part  of  Perry  west  of  Anderson's  Creek,  and  including  the 
place  at  which  Mr.  Lincoln  had  located  himself. 

Here  his  emigrant  wagon  paused,  and  aided  by  the  busy 
hands  of  his  son,  a  log  cabin  was  speedily  built,  which  was  to 
be  their  home  through  many  coming  years.  The  particular  site 
of  his  dwelling  was  doubtless  determined,  as  usual,  by  the  dis- 
covery of  a  living  spring  of  water,  after  fixing  on  his  selection 
for  a  farm.  This  completed,  and  a  shelter  provided  for  their 
stock,  the  next  business  was  to  clear  up  a  space  in  the  forest 
which  should  produce  a  crop  of  grain  for  their  sustenance  the 
next  season.  Hard  work  had  begun  in  good  earnest  for  the 
young  Kentuckian.  He  was  to  learn  the  realities  of  genuine 
pioneer  life,  such  as  he  had  before  but  imperfectly  understood, 
unless  by  tradition  and  the  evening  tales  of  his  father. 

Indiana,  at  this  date,  was  still  a  Territory,  having  been 
originally  united  under  the  same  government  with  Illinois, 
after  the  admission  of  Ohio  as  a  State,  "  the  first-born  of  the 
great  North-west,"  in  1802.  A  separate  territorial  organization 
was  made  for  each  in  1809,     A  few  months  before  the  arrival 


LIFE    OK    ABRAUAM    LINCOLN.  23 

oi' Thomas  Lincoln,  namely,  in  June,  1816,  pursuant  to  a  Con- 
gressional "enabling  act,"  a  Convention  had  beeri  held  which 
adopted  a  State  Constitution,  preparatory  to  admission  into  the 
Union,  Under  this  Constitution,  a  month  or  two  later,  in 
December,  1816,  Indiana  became,  by  act  of  Congress,  a  sove- 
reign State. 

The  population  of  Indiana  was  now  about  65,000,  distributed 
chiefly  south  of  a  straight  line  drawn  from  Vincennes,  on  the 
Wabash,  to  Lawrenceburg,  on  the  Ohio.  Vincennes  was  long 
the  territorial  capital,  and  with  the  surrounding  country,  had 
been  occupied  by  French  emigrants,  many  years  before  the 
Revolution.  In  1800,  the  whole  number  of  residents  in  these 
colonies  was  less  than  5,000.  These,  like  other  French  set- 
tlements, made  little  progress  of  themselves.  From  1800  to 
1310  there  had  been  a  large  increase,  mostly  by  emigrations  to 
Southern  Indiana  from  Kentucky,  swelling  the  population  to 
24,520,  at  the  latter  date.  In  1811  had  occurred  serious  diffi- 
culties with  the  Indians,  terminating  in  the  decisive  victory 
over  them  at  Tippecanoe.  So  general  had  become  the  settle- 
ments, eastward  from  Vincennes  and  up  the  Ohio  river,  that 
the  capital  was  removed  fir  eastward  to  Corydon,  in  1813,  as  a 
central  location.  This  place,  the  capital  of  Harrison  county, 
is  about  twenty-five  miles  west  from  Louisville,  and  more  than 
a  hundred  south  of  the  present  metropolis  of  the  State.  But 
one  county  intervened  between  Harrison  and  Perry,  and  Gen- 
tryville  is  hardly  forty  miles,  in  a  direct  line,  from  Corydon.  . 
This  place  coutinued  to  be  the  seat  of  government  for  the  State 
until  1824,  as  it  had  been  for  the  Territory  during  the  three 
years  next  preceding  1816.  It  was  but  natural,  therefore,  that 
emigration  should  be  prominently  directed  to  this  part  of  the 
State,  at  the  period  under  consideration.  In  1820  the  popula- 
tion had  increased  to  over  147,000,  or  more  than  six-fold  dur- 
ing ten  years,  and  nearly  thirty-fold  since  1800. 

There  is  little  doubt  that  in  emigrating,  Thomas  Lincoln  had 
fallen  in  with  a  prevalent  contagion  in  his  own  State,  and  that 
he  took  up  his  residence  in  the  part  of  Indiana  then  deemed 
most  desirable  of  all  that  was  unoccupied.  It  is  common  to 
attribute  these  extensive  migrations  from  the  border  slave- 


24  LIKE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

holding  States  into  the  non-slaveholding  Northwest,  to  a  pre- 
ference for  institutions  based  upon  free  labor  to  the  exclusion 
of  slavery.  This  was,  beyond  question,  a  powerful  inducement 
with  many,  yet  by  no  means  the  exclusive  one;  and  with  some 
it  did  not  exist  at  all.  In  the  earlier  days  of  Kentucky,  the 
proportion  of  slaves  to  the  free  white  population  was  small, 
and  in  many  places  slavery  can  hardly  have  been  an  appreciable 
element.  But  in  1816,  the  number  of  slaves  must  have  ex- 
ceeded 100,000,  and  their  ratio  of  increase  was  becoming  very 
high.  Upon  a  man  in  the  circumstances  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  with 
a  young  family  to  rear,  this  consideration  undoubtedly  had  its 
weight,  amonir  the  others  we  have  suc:2:ested  as  the  cause  of  his 
removal  to  Indiana.  We  have  at  least  the  fact,  that,  though 
painfully,  and  with  an  exile's  sadness,  he  turned  his  back  for- 
ever on  a  State  that  tolerated  slavery,  to  seek  a  new  home 
where  free  labor  had  been  sacredly  assured  exclusive  rights  and 
honors. 

The  next  thirteen  years  Abraham  Lincoln  spent  here,  in 
Southern  Indiana,  near  the  Ohio,  nearly  midway  between 
Louisville  and  Evansville.  He  was  now  old  enough  to  begin 
to  take  an  active  part  in  the  farm  labors  of  his  father,  and  he 
manfully  performed  his  share  of  hard  work.  He  learned  to 
use  the  axe  and  to  hold  the  plough.  He  became  inured  to  all 
the  duties  of  seed-time  and  harvest.  On  many  a  day,  during 
every  one  of  those  thii-teen  years,  this  Kentucky  boy  might 
have  been  seen  with  a  long  "gad"  in  his  hand,  drivina:  his 
father's  team  in  the  field,  or  from  the  woods,  with  a  heavy 
draught,  or  on  the  rough  path  to  the  mill,  the  store,  or  the  river 
landing — very  probably  at  times,  in  the  language  of  the  Hoosier 
bard,  descriptive  of  such  pioneer  workers  in  general : 

" — ■ — 5a/i«  shoes  or  socks  on, 


With  snake-pole  and  a  yoke  of  oxen." 

A  vigorous  constitution,  and  a  cheerful,  unrepining  disposi- 
tion, made  all  his  labors  comparatively  light.  To  such  a  one, 
this  sort  of  life  has  in  it  much  of  pleasant  excitement  to  com- 
pensate for  its  hardships.  He  learned  to,  derive  enjoyment 
from  the  severest  lot.     The  "  dignity  of  labor,"  which  is  with 


LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  25 

demagogues  sucli  hollow  cant,  became  to  him  a  true  and 
appreciable  reality. 

Here,  as  in  Kentucky,  he  attended  private  schools,  and  in 
other  ways  increased  his  little  stock  of  learning,  aided  by  what 
he  had  already  acquired.  The  same  want  of  systematic  public 
instruction,  and  the  same  mode  of  remedying  this  lack,  pre- 
vailed in  Indiana,  as  in  his  former  home.  One  of  his  teachers 
■was  named  Andrew  Crawford,  to  whom  he  used  to  be  occasion- 
ally indebted  for  the  loan  of  books,  to  read  at  such  leisure 
hours  as  he  could  command.  His  last  teacher  was  a  Mr. 
Dorsey,  who  has  had  the  satisfaction,  in  later  years,  of  taking 
his  former  scholar  by  the  hand,  rejoicing  to  recognize  the  once 
obscure  boy  as  now  one  of  the  foremost  leaders  of  the  people. 
Dorsey  was  lately  residing  in  Schuyler  county,  Illinois,  where 
he  also  had  sons  living. 

That  we  may  estimate  Mr.  Lincoln  in  his  true  character,  as 
chiefly  a  self-educated  man,  it  should  be  stated  that,  summing 
up  all  the  days  of  his  actual  attendance  upon  school  instruc- 
tion, the  amount  would  hardly  exceed  one  year.  The  rest  he 
has  accomplished  for  himself  in  his  own  way.  As  a  youth  he 
read  with  avidity  such  instructive  works  as  he  could  obtain, 
and  in  winter  evenings,  by  the  mere  light  of  the  blazing  fire- 
place, when  no  better  resource  was  at  hand. 

An  incident  having  its  appropriate  connection  here,  and 
illustrating  several  traits  of  the  man,  as  already  developed  in 
early  boyhood,  is  vouched  for  by  a  citizen  of  Evansville,  who 
knew  him  in  the  days  referred  to.  In  his  eagerness  to  acquire 
knowledge,  young  Lincoln  had  borrowed  of  Mr.  Crawford  a 
copy  of  Weems'  Life  of  Washington — the  only  one  known  to 
be  in  existence  in  the  neighborhood.  Before  he  had  finished 
reading  the  book,  it  had  been  left,  by  a  not  unnatural  oversight, 
in  a  window.  Meantime,  a  rain  storm  came  on,  and  the  book 
was  so  thoroughly  -wet  as  to  make  it  nearly  worthless.  This 
mishap  caused  him  much  pain ;  but  he  went,  in  all  honesty,  to 
Crawford  with  the  ruined  book,  explained  the  calamity  that 
had  happened  through  his  neglect,  and  offered,  not  having 
suflicient  money,  to  "work  out"  the  value  of  the  book. 

"  Well,  Abe,"  said  Crawford,  "  as  it's  you  I  won't  be  hard  oh 
3 


26  LIFE    OF   ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 

you.     Come  over  and  pull  fodder  for  me  for  two  days,  and  we 
will  call  our  accounts  even." 

The  oifer  was  accepted  and  the  engagement  literally  ful- 
filled. As  a  boy,  no  less  than  since,  Abraham  Lincoln  had 
an  honorable  conscientiousness,  integrity,  industry,  and  an 
ardent  love  of  knowledge. 

The  town  on  the  Ohio  river  nearest  his  home  was  Troy,  the 
capital  of  Perry  county  down  to  the  date  of  its  division. 
This  place,  at  the  mouth  of  Anderson's  Creek,  had  been 
settled  as  early  as  1811,  and  was  a  place  of  some  consequence, 
both  for  its  river  trade  and  as  the  county  seat.  After  this 
latter  advantage  was  lost,  by  the  formation  of  a  new  county 
in  1818,  Troy  dwindled  away,  and  is  now  a  place  of  only 
about  five  hundred  inhabitants.  Rockport,  nearly  twenty 
miles  south-west  of  Gentryville,  became  the  capital  of  Spencer 
county,  and  thenceforward  a  point  of  interest  to  the  new 
settlers.  It  is  situated  on  a  high  blufi"  of  the  Ohio  river,  and 
receives  its  name  from  "  Lady  Washington's  Rock,"  a  pictur- 
esque hanging-rock  at  that  place.  At  these  two  points,  young 
Lincoln  gained  some  knowledge  of  the  new  world  of  river 
life  and  business,  in  addition  to  his  farm  experience,  and  to 
his  forest  sports  with  rod  and  rifle. 

It  was  during  one  of  the  later  of  these  thirteen  years,  that 
Abraham,  at  nineteen,  was  permitted  to  gratify  his  eager  long- 
ing to  see  more  of  the  world,  and  to  try  the  charms  of  an  excur- 
sion on  the  Beautiful  River.  He  had  inherited  much  of  the 
adventurous  and  stirring  disposition  of  his  Virginian  grand- 
father, and  was  delighted  with  the  prospect  of  a  visit  to  New 
Orleans,  then  the  splendid  city  of  Western  dreams.  He  per- 
formed this  journey,  on  a  common  flat-boat,  doing  service  as  one 
of  the  hands  on  that  long  yet  most  exhilarating  trip.  We  have 
no  particulars  of  this  his  sole  excursion  as  a  flatboatman  dur- 
ing his  Indiana  days,  yet  to  his  own  mind  it  probably  still 
aff'ords  many  not  unpleasing  recollections.  He  was  undoubt- 
edly the  life  of  the  little  company,  delighting  them  with  his 
humorous  sallies  no  less  than  with  his  muscular  superiority 
and  with  his  hilarious  activity  and  intuitive  tact  in  all  that 
immediately  concerned  their  voyage. 


LIFE   OP    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  27 

If  there  had  been  any  forebodings  at  the  time  of  departure 
from  their  first  home  on  Nolin  Creek,  these  were  to  be  ere- 
long realized  by  the  Indiana  emigrants.  Scarcely  two  years 
had  passed,  in  this  changed  climate,  and  in  these  rougher 
forest  experiences,  before  the  mother  of  young  Abraham — 
perhaps  too  gentle  to  encounter  the  new  trials  added  to  those 
she  had  before  partially  surmounted,  and  to  endure  the 
malarious  influences  in  which  this  wild  country  abounded — 
was  called  to  a  last  separation  from  those  she  had  so  tenderly 
loved.  She  died  in  1818,  leaving  as  her  sole  surviving  chil- 
dren, a  daughter  less  than  twelve  years  old,  and  a  son  two 
years  younger,  of  whose  future  distinction,  even  with  a 
mother's  fondness,  she  probably  had  but  an  indefinite  hope. 
A  grave  was  made  for  her — 

"  Where  the  wind  of  the  West  breathes  its  softest  sigh; 
AVhere  the  silvery  stream  is  flowing  nigh — 
Where  the  sun's  warm  smile  may  never  dispel 
^      Night's  tears  o'er  the  form  that  was  loved  so  well — 
Where  no  column  proud  in  the  sun  may  glow, 
To  mock  the  heart  that  is  resting  below." 

A  year  or  two  later,  Thomas  Lincoln  contracted  a  second 
marriage  with  Mrs.  Johnston,  a  widow  with  three  children, 
that  were  brought  up  with  those  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  Besides 
these  step-children,  there  were  no  additions  to  the  family  as 
before  enumerated. 

In  concluding  this  brief  account  of  the  thirteen  important 
years  which  were  spent  by  Abraham  Lincoln  as  an  Indianian, 
the  personal  recollections  of  a  distinguished  lawyer  and  states- 
man of  an  older  generation,  who  emigrated  to  Indiana  at 
nearly  the  same  date,  will  aid  in  conveying  a  correct  impres- 
sion of  those  times,  and  of  the  circumstances  with  which  the 
youth  was  surrounded. 

Indiana,  says  the  late  Hon.  0.  H.  Smith,*  "  was  born  in  the 
year  1816,  with  some  sixty-five  thousand  inhabitants — only 
about  forty  years  ago.     A  few  counties  only  were  then  organ- 


*  Early  Indiana  Trials  and  Sketches     Reminiscences,  by  Hon.  0.  H. 
Smith,  page  285. 


28  LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

ized.     The  whole  middle,  north,  and  north-west  portions  of 
the  State  were  an   unbroken  wilderness,  in  the  possession  of 
the  Indians.     Well  do  I  remember  when  there  were  but  two 
families  settled  west  of  the  Whitewater  Valley— one  at  Flat 
Rock,  above  where  Rushville  now  stands,  and  the   other  on 
Brandywine,   near    where    Greenfield    was   afterward    located. 
When  I  first  visited  the  ground  on   which   Indianapolis    now 
stands,  the  whole  country,  east  to  Whitewater    and    west   to 
the  Wabash,  was  a  dense,  unbroken   forest.     There  were  no 
public  roads,  no  bridges  over  any  of  the  streams.     The  trav- 
eler had  literally  to  swim  his  way.     No  cultivated  farms,  no 
houses  to  shelter  or  feed  the  weary  traveler,  or  his  jaded  horse. 
The  courts,  years  afterward,  were  held  in  log  huts,  and  the 
juries  sat  under  the  shade  of  the  forest  trees.     I  was  Circuit 
Prosecuting  Attorney  at  the  time  of  the  trials  at  the  falls  of 
Fall  Creek,  where  Pendleton   now  stands.     Four  of  the  pris- 
oners were  convicted  of  murder,  and  three  of  them  hung,  for 
killing   Indians.     The  court  was  held  in  a  double  log  cabin, 
the  grand  jury  sat  upon  a  log  in  the  woods,  and  the  foreman 
signed  the  bills  of  indictment  which  I  had  prepared,  upon  his 
knee  ;  there  was  not  a  petit  juror  that  had  shoes  on — all  wore 
moccasins,  and  were  belted  around  the  waist,  and  carried  side 
knives  used  by  the  hunter.     The  products  of  the  country  con- 
sisted of  peltries,  the  wild  game  killed  in  the  forest   by  the 
Indian  hunters,  the  fish  caught  in  the  interior  lakes,  rivers, 
and  creeks,  the  pawpaw,  wild  plum,  haws,  small  berries  gath- 
ered by  the  squaws  in  the  woods.     The  travel  was  confined  to 
the  single  horse  and  his  rider,  the  commerce  to  the  pack-sad- 
dle, and  the   navigation  to  the  Indian  canoe.     Many  a  time 
and  oft  have  I  crossed  our  swollen   streams,  by  day  and  by 
night,    sometimes    swimming   my    horse,  and   at   others   pad- 
dling the  rude  bark  canoe  of  the   Indian.     Such   is  a  mere 
sketch  of  our  State  when  I  traversed  its  wilds,  and  I  am   not 
one  of  its  first  settlers." 

Thus  it  was  that  young  Lincoln  grew  up  to  the  verge  of 
manhood ;  he  led  no  idle  or  enervating  existence.  Brought 
up  to  the  habits  of  sobriety,  and  accustomed  to  steady  labor, 
no  one  of  all  the  working-men  with  whom  he  came  in  contact 


LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  29 

was  a  better  sample  of  his  class  than  he.  He  had  now  become 
a  Saul  among  his  associates,  having  reached  the  hight  of 
nearly  six  feet  and  four  inches,  and  with  a  comparatively 
slender  yet  uncommonly  strong,  muscular  frame.  He  was 
even  then,  in  his  mental  and  moral  characteristics,  no  less 
than  in  his  physical  proportions,  one  not  to  be  forgotten  or 
unappreciated  by  those  who  knew  him.  Many  reminiscences 
of  those  days  of  his  hardy  endeavor  and  rough  experience 
linger  in  the  minds  of  the  plain,  earnest  people  among 
whom  his  lot  for  a  long  period  was  thus  east,  and  will  some 
time  be  repeated,  with  such  exaggerations  or  fabulous  glosses 
as  are  wont  gradually  to  gather,  like  the  sacred  halo  of  the 
painters,  around  the  memorials  of  a  recognized  hero.  And 
a  hero,  ever  hereafter,  in  the  traditions  of  Southern  Indiana, 
will  be  the  youthful  Abraham  Lincoln,  gigantic  and  stalwart 
in  his  outward  form,  no  less  than  in  the  glowing  and  noble 
spirit  already  beginning  to  foresee  and  prepare  for  a  high  des- 
tiny. Wherever  he  has  dwelt  becomes  classic  and  consecrated 
ground,  and  to  have  known  him,  even  in  his  obscurest  days, 
will  be  deemed  a  circumstance  to  be  recounted  with  pride. 
To  gather  up  such  recollections  and  to  perpetuate  them  with 
thft  pen,  will  be  the  work  of  future  times  and  other  hands. 

This  period  of  young  Lincoln's  life  was  terminated  by 
another  removal  of  his  father,  a.s  will  appear  in  the  next 
chapter. 


30  LIFE    OP    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN, 


CPIAPTER  III. 

FIRST     YEARS    IN    ILLINOIS. — 1830-32. 

The  French  Settlements. — Tlie  North-West. — The  Advance  of  Emigra- 
tion.— Four  Great  States  Founded  in  the  Lifetime  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
Father. — North  and  South  Meeting  in  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois. — 
Sentiments  of  Southern  Emigrants. — The  First  Emigrations.— A 
Coincidence  of  Dates. — Mordecai  and  Josiah  Lincoln. — Removal  to 
Illinois. — Settlement  on  the  Sangamon,  in  Macon  County. — The 
Locality  described. — Abraham  Lincoln  Splits  Three  Thousand  Rails. — 
Another  Removal  of  his  Father. — They  Separate. — His  Father  Spends 
the  rest  of  his  Days  in  Coles  County. — Abraham  Lincoln  makes 
Another  Trip  as  a  Flatboatman. — Becomes  Clerk  in  a  Store  on  his  Re- 
turn.— Leaves  the  Business  after  a  Year's  Service. 

The  early  French  settlements  of  Illinois,  at  Kaskastia  and 
Cahokia,  had  proved  as  little  successful  or  permanent  as  those 
of  Indiana  around  Vincennes.  The  territory  had  come  into 
the  possession  of  the  British  Government  just  before  the 
Revolution,  and  emigration  from  Virginia  had  commenced 
almost  simultaneously  to  that  quarter  and  to  Kentucky.  In 
1787,  as  is  well  known,  the  settlements  here,  in  common  with 
those  scattered  throughout  the  great  expanse  of  United  States 
territory,  Northwest  of  the  Ohio  river,  were  brought  under  a 
territorial  government,  as  wide  in  its  local  scope  as  it  was 
apparently  insignificant  in  the  extent  of  its  population  and 
power.  Time  speedily  demonstrated  the  error  of  such  an 
estimate  of  the  remarkable  region  between  the  Ohio,  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  the  Lakes,  yet,  even  to  this  day,  the  people  of  the 
East  accept  the  idea  of  this  greatness  and  coming  power  rather 
as  an  abstract  proposition  than  as  a  living  reality,  deeply 
afi"ecting  their  own  relative  interests  and  the  common  resources 
and  grandeur  of  the  country. 


LIFE    OF    AISHAHAM    LINCOLN.  31 

The  rapid  growth  of  Kentucky  on  the  one  side,  and  of  Ohio 
and  Indiana  on  the  other,  vre  have  incidentally  seen  in  these 
pages.  The  birth  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  father,  Thomas  Lincoln,  was 
anterior  to  or  nearly  coeval  with  the  very  first  settlements  in  all 
those  States,  excepting  only  the  lifeless  French  colonies  of  Indi- 
ana. The  State  of  Illinois  may  be  added  to  those  of  which  it 
may  be  said,  in  like  manner,  his  own  life  was  the  measure  of 
their  age,  dating  from  the  first  substantial  and  growing  existence 
of  their  colonial  settlements.  In  Illinois,  as  in  Indiana,  the 
earliest  waves  of  a  healthful  emigration  had  come  from  Ken- 
tucky and  Virginia,  and  in  both  cases  alike,  the  Southern 
portion  was  the  earliest  to  be  occupied.  Between  these  early 
outflowings  of  free  labor  from  the  land  of  slavery,  and  those 
later  ones  from  the  free  States  of  the  East,  on  more  northern 
parallels,  there  is  a  marked  difference,  still  traceable — creating, 
in  a  certain  sense,  in  all  the  States  of  the  Northwest  which 
touch  the  imaginary  line  of  Mason  and  Dixon,  a  division  of 
North  and  South.  Experience  and  increased  commingling 
between  these  localities  are  fast  abating  the  distinctness  of 
this  somewhat  indefinite  separating  line,  but  for  years  to  come 
it  can  not  be  wholly  obliterated.  These  two  elements,  combined 
and  consolidated,  growing  into  unity  instead  of  being  arrayed 
against  each  other  in  widening  separation,  will  go  to  constitute 
the  strongest  of  States.  The  Southern  emigration  gave  char- 
acter to  the  earlier  legislation  of  Indiana  and  Illinois  especially. 
With  evidences  of  a  lurking  attachment  to  the  peculiar  insti- 
tution of  the  States  on  the  other  side  of  the  Ohio  river,  the 
general  tenor  of  public  sentiment  and  action  was  as  positive 
and  distinct,  as  were  the  opinions  of  the  more  Northern  mul- 
titudes who  came  in  to  fill  up  these  new  commonwealths.  And 
yet  the  views  of  slavery  prevalent  in  southern  Indiana  and 
Illinois,  were  at  that  time  not  much  diverse  from  those  which 
were  entertained  in  the  communities  from  which  these  settlers 
had  come.  They  regarded  slavery  as  an  evil  to  be  rid  of;  and 
to  make  sure  of  this,  those  who  were  not  already  too  much 
entangled  with  it,  left  in  large  numbers  for  a  region  which,  by 
request  of  Virginia  herself,  the  donor,  was  "  forever  "  protected 
from  the  inroads  of  this  moral  and  social  mischief. 


o2  LIFE   OP    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

As  we  Lave  seen,  Indiana  liad  more  than  100,000  people 
concentrated  in  the  south,  before  any  real  advance  had  been 
made  in  the  central  and  northern  parts.  Nearly  the  same 
thing  was  true  of  Illinois.  The  territory  had  been  separately 
organized  in  the  same  year  with  the  birth  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln— 1809.  The  next  year's  census  showed  its  entire  white 
population  to  be  only  11,501.  These  were  almost  exclusively 
located  south  of  the  National  Road,  which  crosses  the  Kaskas- 
kia  river  at  Vandalia,  extending  nearly  due  west  to  Alton. 
Notwithstanding  the  severe  labors  of  opening  the  forests  on  the 
rich  western  soil,  and  the  long  period  that  must  necessarily 
elapse  between  the  first  clearing  therein  and  the  perfect  subju- 
gation of  the  selected  lands  into  cultivated  farms,  there  seems 
to  have  been  a  general  avoidance,  even  down  to  comparatively 
a  late  period,  of  the  open  prairie,  which  is  now  thought  to 
offer  such  pre-eminent  facilities  for  cultivation,  with  almost 
immediate  repayment  for  the  toil  bestowed.  The  settlers  who 
had  gone  into  Illinois,  evidently  placed  a  low  estimate  upon 
the  prairie  lands,  and  always  settled  on  the  banks  of  some 
stream,  on  which  there  was  plenty  of  timber,  seeking  the  forest 
by  preference  for  their  homes.  The  open  character  of  the 
country  undoubtedly  repelled  emigration,  and  caused  it  to  be 
concentrated  on  the  chief  streams,  for  a  long  time,  when  at  last 
it  commenced  in  earnest. 

In  1820,  two  years  after  admission  into  the  Union,  the  entire 
population,  still  almost  entirely  confined  to  the  same  region, 
and  to  similar  localities  as  ten  years  before,  amounted  to  only 
55,211.  From  that  time  to  1830,  there  was  some  extension  of 
the  settlements  northward,  toward  the  center  of  the  State,  and 
up  the  Mississippi  to  Galena,  where  the  mines  were  already 
worked.  The  rivers  along  which  the  principal  settlements  had 
been  made,  aside  from  the  great  boundary  rivers,  the  Missis- 
sippi, the  Ohio,  and  the  "Wabash,  were  the  Kaskaskia,  the  Em- 
barras,  the  Sangamon,  and  their  branches.  There  were  a  few 
settlements,  also,  in  the  Rock-river  eouutry,  and  on  the  range 
of  Peoria.  The  population,  thus  chiefly  distributed,  had  now 
(1830)  reached  157,445. 

The  brothers  of  Thomas   Lincoln,  had   previously  removed 


LIFE   OF    ABKAIIAM    LINCOLN.  Si 

to  a  more  northern  location  in  Indiana,  than  that  which  he 
had  occupied.  Both  settled  in  the  Blue-river  country — Mor- 
decai  in  Hancock  county,  where  he  not  long  after  died,  and 
Josiah  in  Harrison  county.  Their  example,  perhaps,  had  its 
influence  upon  Thomas,  who,  however,  took  a  course  of  his 
own.  Whatever  the  immediate  or  remote  occasion,  he  left 
Indiana  in  the  spring  of  1830,  to  seek  another  place  of  abode, 
in  the  State  of  Illinois.  He  had  seen  the  growth  of  Kentucky 
from  almost  the  very  start,  to  a  population  of  nearly  700,000, 
and  he  had  lived  in  Indiana  from  the  time  its  inhabitants 
numbered  only  65,000,  until  they  had  reached  nearly  350,000. 
As  he  first  set  his  foot  within  the  limits  of  Illinois,  its  vast 
territory  had,  comparatively,  but  just  begun  to  be  occupied , 
scarcely  at  all,  as  wc  have  seen,  except  in  the  extreme  southern 
portion,  and  here  almost  exclusively  along  the  principal 
streams.  In  a  country  so  poorly  supplied  with  wood  and 
water,  as  Illinois,  such  sites  would  naturally  be  the  first  to  be 
taken  up,  and  with  a  prairie  addition,  suited  the  tastes  even  of 
those  to  whom  the  level,  open  country  was  forbidding  in 
appearance. 

Mr.  Lincoln  pushed  forward  to  the  central  part  of  the  State, 
where  such  locations  were  still  abundant.  A  more  beautiful 
country  than  that  of  the  Sangamon  valley,  could  not  easily  have 
been  anywhere  discovered  by  an  explorer.  It  was  not  strange 
that  the  report  of  such  lands,  if  he  heard  it  in  his  Southern 
Indiana  home,  should  have  attracted  even  so  far  one  who  was 
bred  to  pioneer  life,  and  inherited  a  migratory  disposition. 
He  first  settled  on  the  Sangamon  "  bottom,"  in  Macon  county. 

Passing  over  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  as  you  approach 
Decatur,  the  county-seat  of  Macon,  from  the  south,  a  slightly 
broken  country  is  reached  two  or  three  miles  from  that  place, 
and  presently  the  North  Fork  of  the  Sangamon,  over  which 
you  pass,  a  mile  from  the  town.  This  stream  flows  westwardly, 
uniting  with  the  South  Fork,  near  Jamestown,  ten  miles  from 
Springfield.  Following  down  this  North  Fork  for  a  distance 
of  about  ten  miles  from  Decatur,  you  come  to  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  the  first  residence  of  Abraham  Lincoln  (with  his 
father's  family),  in  Illinois. 
4 


g4  I'IPE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Here,  for  the  first  season  of  his  abode  in  the  new  State,  he 
continued  to  assist  his  father  in  his  farm-work.  One  of  the 
first  duties  was  to  fence  in  a  field  on  the  rich  bottom-lands, 
which  had  been  selected  for  cultivation.  For  this  purpose, 
with  the  help  of  one  laborer,  Abraham  Lincoln,  at  this  time, 
split  THREE  THOUSAND  RAILS— the  crowning  work  of  a  long 
laborious  period  of  his  life.  The  hand  who  aided  him  in  this 
exploit,  named  John  Hanks,  a  distant  relative  of  his  mother, 
is  yet  living,  and  bears  earnest  testimony  to  the  strength  and 
skill  with  which  the  maul  and  the  wedge  were  employed  on 
this  occasion. 

For  some  unexplained  reason,  the  family  did  not  remain  on 
this  place  but  a  single  year.  Abraham  was  now  of  age,  and 
when,  in  the  spring  of  1831,  his  father  set  out  for  Coles 
county,  sixty  or  seventy  miles  to  the  eastward,  on  the  upper 
waters  of  the  Kaskaskia  and  Embarras,  a  separation  took 
place,  the  son  for  the  first  time  assuming  his  independence, 
and  commencing  life  on  his  own  account.  The  scene  of  these 
labors  he  has  not  since  visited.  His  father  was  soon  after 
comfortably  settled  in  the  place  to  which  he  had  turned  his 
course,  and  spent  the  remainder  of  his  adventurous  days  there, 
arriving  at  a  good  old  age.  He  died  in  Coles  county,  on  the 
17th  day  of  January,  1851,  being  in  his  seventy- third  year. 
The  farm  on  the  Sangamon  subsequently  came  into  the  pos- 
session of  a  man  named  Whitley,  who  also  erected  a  mill  in 

the  vicinity. 

While  there  was  snow  on  the  ground,  at  the  close  of  the 
year  1830,  or  early  in  1831,  a  man  came  to  that  part  of  Macon 
county  where  young  Lincoln  was  living,  in  pursuit  of  hands 
to  aid  him  in  a  flatboat  voyage  down  the  Mississippi.  The 
fact  was  known  that  the  youth  had  once  made  such  a  trip,  and 
his  services  were  sought  for  the  occasion.  As  one  who  had 
his  own  subsistence  to  earn,  with  no  capital  but  his  hands,  and 
with  no  immediate  opportunities  for  commencing  professional 
study,  if  his  thoughts  had  as  yet  been  turned  in  that  direction, 
he  accepted  the  ^proposition  made  him.  Perhaps  there  was 
something  of  his  inherited  and  acquired  fondness  for  exciting 
adventure,  impelling  him  to  this  decision.     With  him,  were 


LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  35 

also  employed,  his  former  fellow-laborer,  John  Hanks,  and  a 
son  of  his  step-mother,  named  John  Johnston.  In  the  spring 
of  1831,  Lincoln  set  out  to  fulfill  his  engagement.  The  floods 
had  so  swollen  the  streams  that  the  Sangamon  country  was  a 
vast  sea  before  him.  His  first  entrance  into  that  county  was 
over  these  wide-spread  waters,  in  a  canoe.  The  time  had 
come  to  join  his  employer  on  his  journey  to  New-Orleans,  but 
the  latter  had  been  disappointed  by  another  person  on  whom 
he  relied  to  furnish  him  a  boat,  on  the  Illinois  river.  Accord- 
ingly, all  hands  set  to  work  and  themselves  built  a  boat,  on  that 
river,  for  their  purposes.  This  done,  they  set  out  on  their 
long  trip,  making  a  successful  voyage  to  New  Orleans  and 
back.  It  is  reported  by  his  friends,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  refers 
with  much  pleasant  humor  to  this  early  experience,  so  relating 
some  of  its  incidents  as  to  aff"ord  abundant  amusement  to  his 
auditors.  In  truth,  he  was  a  youth  who  could  adapt  himself 
to  this  or  any  other  honest  work,  which  his  circumstances 
required  of  him,  and  with  a  cheerfulness  and  alacrity — a  cer- 
tain practical  humor — rarely  equaled.  He  could  turn  off  the 
hardest  labor  as  a  mere  pastime ;  and  his  manly  presence,  to 
other  laborers,  was  as  a  constant  inspiration  and  a  charm  to 
lighten  their  burdens. 

It  was  midsummer  when  the  flatboatman  returned  from 
this  his  second  and  last  trip,  in  that  capacity.  The  man 
•who  had  commanded  this  little  expedition  now  undertook  to 
establish  himself  in  business  at  New  Salem,  twenty  miles 
below  Springfield,  in  Menard  county — a  place  of  more  relative 
consequence  then  than  now — two  miles  from  Petersburg,  the 
county  seat.  He  had  found  young  Lincoln  a  person  of  such 
sort  that  he  was  anxious  to  secure  his  services  in  the  new 
enterprise  he  was  about  to  embark  in.  He  opened  a  store  at 
New  Salem,  and  also  had  a  mill  for  flouring  grain.  For  want 
of  other  immediate  employment,  and  in  the  same  spirit  which 
had  heretofore  actuated  him,  Abraham  Lincoln  now  entered 
upon  the  duties  of  a  clerk,  having  an  eye  to  both  branches  of 
the  business  carried  on  by  his  employer.  This  connection 
continued  for  nearly  a  year,  all  the  duties  of  his  position  being 
faithfully  and  cheerfully  performed. 


86  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

It  was  to  this  year's  humble  but  honorable  service — one 
that  would  have  been  ennobled  by  his  alacrity  in  discharging 
it,  as  a  necessity  of  his  lot,  were  the  employment  far  less  dig- 
nified than  it  really  was  —  that  Mr.  Douglas  tauntingly 
alluded,  in  one  of  his  speeches  during  the  canvass  of  1858,  as 
"  keeping  a  grocery."  In  his  reply,  Mr.  Lincoln  declared  his 
adversary  to  be  "  wofully  at  fault"  as  to  the  fact,  in  alleging 
him  to  have  been  a  grocery-keeper,  though  it  might  be  no 
great  sin  had  the  statement  been  well  founded.  He  added 
that,  in  truth,  he  had  "  never  kept  a  grocery  anywhere  in  the 
world." 

The  business  of  this  country  merchant  at  New  Salem  did 
not  prove  remarkably  successful.  In  any  event,  the  employ- 
ment was  not  such  as  could  have  permanently  suited  an  active, 
muscular  person,  like  young  Lincoln,  with  a  lurking  passion 
for  adventure,  and  for  more  exciting  scenes.  His  clerkship 
days,  however,  were  brought  to  an  abrupt  close,  probably  much 
sooner  than  they  otherwise  would  have  been,  by  the  breaking 
out  of  the  Black-Hawk  war,  in  which  he  was  eager  to  bear  an 
honorable  part. 


LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  37 


CHAPTEE  lY. 

SERVICE   IN   THE   BLACK-HAWK   WAR — 1832. 

Breaking  Out  of  the  Black-Hawk  War.— The  Invasion  of  1831.— The 
Rock-river  Country  Threatened. — Prompt  Action  of  Gov.  Reynolds. 
—Retreat  of  Black  Hawk.  — Treaty  of  1804  Re-affirmed.  — Bad 
Faith  of  the  Indians. — Invasion  of  1832. — Volunteers  Called  For. — 
Abraham  Lincoln  one  of  a  Company  from  Menard  County. — He  is 
chosen  Captain. — Rendezvous  at  Beardstown. — Hard  Marches  across 
the  Country  to  Oquawka,  Prophetstown,  and  Dixon. — Expected  Battle 
Avoided  by  the  Enemy. — Discontent  among  Volunteers. — They  are 
Disbanded. — Captain  Lincoln  Remains,  Volunteering  for  Another 
Term  of  Service. — Skirmishing  Fights. — Arrival  of  New  Levies. — 
Encounter  at  Kellogg's  Grove. — Black-Hawk  at  the  Four  Lakes. — He 
Retreats. — Battle  on  the  Wisconsin. — Hastens  Forward  to  the  Missis- 
sippi.— Battle  of  the  Bad- Ax. — End  of  Lincoln's  First  Campaign. — 
Autobiographic  Note. 

While  Abraham  Lincoln  was  quietly  performing  his  duties 
in  the  pioneer  "  store,"  in  Menard  county,  reports  were  re- 
ceived of  an  alarming  Indian  invasion,  on  the  western  border 
of  the  State.  In  the  spring  of  1831,  while  he  was  employed 
in  his  excursion  down  the  Mississippi,  the  noted  Black-Hawk, 
an  old  chief  of  the  Sac  tribe  of  Indians,  repudiating  the  treaty 
by  the  terms  of  which  they  had  been  removed  beyond  the 
Father  of  Waters,  re-crossed  the  river  with  his  women  and 
children,  and  three  hundred  warriors  of  the  Sacs,  together  with* 
allies  from  the  Kickapoo  and  Pottawatomie  nations.  His  object 
was  again  to  take  possession  of  his  old  hunting-grounds,  and  to 
establish  himself  where  the  principal  village  of  his  nation  before 
had  been,  in  the  Rock-river  country.  The  Indians  began 
committing  depredations  upon  the  property  of  the  white  set- 
tlers, destroying  their  crops,  pulling  down  their  fences,  driving 
off  and  slaughtering  their  cattle,  and  ordering  the  settlers 
themselves  to  leave,  under  penalty  of  being  massacred. 


38  LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

In  response  to  the  representations  of  Gov.  Reynolds,  to 
wtom  the  settlers  applied  for  protection,  Gen.  Gaines,  com- 
mander of  the  United  States  forces  in  that  quarter,  took  prompt 
and  decisive  measures  to  expel  these  invaders  from  the  State. 
With  a  few  companies  of  regular  soldiers,  Gen.  Gaines  at  once 
took  up  his  position  at  Rock  Island,  and  at  his  call,  several 
hundred  volunteers,  assembled  from  the  northern  and  central 
parts  of  the  State,  upon  the  proclamation  of  Gov.  Reynolds, 
joined  him  a  month  later.  His  little  army,  distributed  into 
two  regiments,  an  additional  battalion,  and  a  spy  battalion,  was 
the  most  formidable  military  force  yet  seen  in  the  new  State. 
The  expected  battle  did  not  take  place,  the  Indians  having 
suddenly  and  stealthily  retired  again,  in  their  canoes,  across 
the  river.  The  troops  had  been  advanced  to  Vandruff's  Island, 
opposite  the  Indian  town,  where  the  engagement  was  antici- 
pated, and  there  was  much  dissatisfaction  among  the  volunteers, 
and  some  complaints  against  the  generals,  Gaines  and  Duncan, 
for  permitting  the  enemy  to  escape. 

Whether  or  not  either  of  these  commanders  was  chargeable 
with  blame,  this  retreat  of  Black  Hawk  only  prolonged  the 
difficulties  impending,  and  prepared  the  way  for  a  more  formid- 
able and  eventful  campaign,  the  next  season.  Gen.  Gaines, 
however,  had  taken  measures  to  preclude  any  such  possibility, 
so  far  as  the  deliberate  engagements  of  the  uneasy  chief  could 
avail  for  that  purpose.  Intimidated  by  the  threats  of  Gaines 
to  cross  the  river,  and  to  prosecute  the  war  on  that  ground, 
Black  Hawk  sued  for  peace.  A  treaty  was  entered  into,  by 
which  he  agreed  that  he  and  his  tribe  should  ever  after  remain 
on  the  west  side  of  the  river,  unless  by  permission  of  the  State 
Governor,  or  of  the  President.  Thus  was  the  treaty  of  1804 
reaffirmed,  by  which  the  lands  they  were  claiming  had  been 
distinctly  conveyed  to  the  United  States  Government,  which, 
in  turn,  had  sold  them  to  the  present  settlers. 

In  express  violation,  however,  of  this  second  deliberate 
engagement,  Black  Hawk  and  his  followers  began,  early  in 
the  spring  of  1832,  as  we  have  seen,  to  make  preparations  for 
axother  invasion.  Many  and  grievous  wrongs  have  undoubt- 
«  ^y  been  inflicted  upon  the  savage  tribes,  by  the  superior  race 


LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  39^ 

that  has  gradually,  but  steadily  driven  the  former  from  theii 
ancient  homes.  But  the  bad  faith  shown  in  this  case,  and  the 
repeated  violation  of  deliberate  and  voluntary  agreements,  was 
wholly  without  justification  or  excuse.  No  provocation  or 
plausible  pretext  had  arisen  after  the  treaty  of  the  previous 
June ;  yet  Black  Hawk,  under  the  misguided  influence  and 
false  representations  of  the  "  Prophet,"  who  persuaded  him  to 
believe  that  even  the  British  (to  whom  Black  Hawk  had  always 
been  a  fast  friend),  as  well  as  the  Ottawas,  Chippewas,  Winne- 
bagoes  and  Pottawatomies,  would  aid  them  in  regaining  their 
village  and  the  adjoining  lands.  Under  this  delusion,  to  which 
the  wiser  Keokuk  refused  to  become  a  dupe,  though  earnestly 
invited  to  join  them.  Black  Hawk  proceeded  to  gather  as  strong 
a  force  as  possible.  He  first  established  his  headquarters  at  the 
old  site  of  Fort  Madison,  west  of  the  Mississippi.  After  his 
preparations,  of  which  the  people  of  Hlinois  were  advised,  had 
been  completed,  he  proceeded  up  the  river  with  his  women 
and  children,  his  property  and  camp  equipage,  in  canoes,  while 
his  warriors,  armed  and  mounted,  advanced  by  land.  In  spite 
of  a  warning  he  had  received  that  there  was  a  strong  force  of 
white  soldiers  at  Fort  Armstrong,  on  Rock  Island,  he  continued 
on  to  the  mouth  of  Rock  river,  where,  in  utter  recklessness 
and  bad  faith — paying  not  the  slightest  regard  to  his  solemn 
agreement  of  the  last  year — the  whole  party  crossed  to  the 
east  side  of  the  Mississippi,  with  a  declared  purpose  of  ascend- 
ing Rock  river  to  the  territory  of  the  Winnebagoes.  This  was 
in  the  early  part  of  April,  1832.  Black  Hawk,  after  he  had 
gone  some  distance  up  this  latter  river,  was  overtaken  by  a 
messenger  from  Gen.  Atkinson,  who  had  command  of  the 
troops  on  Rock  Island,  and  ordered  to  return  beyond  the 
Mississippi.     This  was  defiantly  refused. 

Gov.  Reynolds  again  issued  a  call  for  volunteers  to  protect 
the  settlers  from  this  invasion.  A  company  was  promptly 
raised  in  Menard  county,  in  the  formation  of  which,  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  one  of  the  most  active.  From  New  Salem,  Clary's 
Grove,  and  elsewhere  in  the  vicinity,  an  efficient  force  was 
gathered,  and  in  making  their  organization,  Lincoln  was 
elected  Captain — and  this  was  the  first  promotion  he  had  ever 


40  LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

received  by  the  suffrages  of  his  fellows,  and  one  that  afforded 
particular  satisfaction  to  his  not  unaspiring,  though  modest 
spirit. 

Their  first  march  was  to  the  rendezvous  appointed  by  Gov. 
Keynolds,  at  Beardstown,  one  of  the  earlier  settlements  on  the 
Illinois  river,  forty  miles  west  of  New  Salem.  Here  eighteen 
hundred  men  were  speedily  assembled,  under  the  direction  of 
the  Governor.  The  forces  were  organized  into  four  regiments, 
with  an  additional  spy  battalion.  Gen.  Samuel  Whiteside, 
of  the  State  militia,  who  had  commanded  the  spy  battalion  in 
the  campaign  of  the  previous  year,  was  now  intrusted  with  the 
command  of  the  whole  brigade.  Gen.  James  J).  Henry  was 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  spy  battalion. 

This  little  army,  a  more  imposing  force  than  that  of  the 
preceding  year,  set  out  from  Beardstown  on  the  27th  of  April, 
for  the  scene  of  action.  Three  or  four  days'  hard  marching 
across  the  country  brought  the  volunteers  to  Oquawka,  on  the 
Mississippi,  from  whence  they  proceeded,  without  delay,  north- 
ward to  the  mouth  of  Rock  river.  Here  it  was  arranged  with 
Gen.  Atkinson,  commander  of  the  regulars,  that  the  vol- 
unteer force  should  march  up  the  latter  stream  a  distance  of 
about  fifty  miles,  to  Prophets  town,  where  they  were  to  encamp, 
awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  regulars,  with  provisions,  by  the 
river.  Gen.  Whiteside,  however,  instead  of  following  out 
this  plan,  set  fire  to  the  Prophet's  village,  on  arriving,  and 
pushed  forward  toward  Dixon's  Ferry,  forty  miles  further  up 
the  river. 

These  incessant  marches  must  have  severely  taxed  the 
endurance  of  many  of  the  inexperienced  soldiers,  but  to  Capt. 
Lincoln,  reared  as  he  had  been,  they  rather  hightened  the 
exhilaration  which  attended  these  adventures  from  the  start. 
The  prospect  of  speedily  overtaking  and  encountering  the 
enemy  in  battle,  and  the  hope  of  winning,  in  the  fight, 
some  special  honors  for  the  little  contingent  under  his  com- 
mand, relieved  the  sense  of  fatigue.  A  short  distance  below 
Dixon's  Ferry,  it  was  ordered  that  the  baggage-wagons  should 
be  left  behind,  and  that  a  forced  march  should  be  made  upon 
that  place.     Arrived  there,  Gen.  Whiteside  halted,  and  sent 


LIFE    OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  41 

out  scouting  parties  to  ascertain  the  position  and  condition  of 
the  enemy.  Here  two  battalions  of  mounted  volunteers,  num- 
bering two  hundred  and  seventy-five  men,  joined  them  from 
McLean,  Peoria,  and  other  counties,  eager  to  distinguish  them- 
selves by  participating  in  the  war.  Some  of  these  fiery  spirits, 
advancing  without  orders,  and  having  no  other  duty  assigned 
them  than  that  of  scouts,  had  a  little  skirmish  on  the  12th  of 
May,  a  mile  distant  from  their  encampment,  in  Ogle  county, 
with  a  number  of  mounted  Indians,  in  which  three  of  the 
latter  were  killed.  Black  Hawk  and  his  principal  forces  were 
not  far  oiF,  and  rallying  seven  hundred  men,  he  promptly 
repelled  the  assaults  of  these  scouts,  pursuing  them  in  a  dis- 
orderly condition,  to  their  camp.  These  rash  adventurers 
now  showed  greater  eagerness  in  flight,  than  they  had  before  to 
gain  distinction  in  battle,  and  ran  helter-skelter  over  the 
prairie,  producing  such  confusion  and  dismay  as  to  render  it 
difiicult  to  prevent  the  most  serious  efi'ects  from  their  insub- 
ordinate conduct.  As  it  was,  eleven  of  the  men  were  killed, 
the  confidence  of  the  Indians  was  greatly  raised,  and  the  sur- 
vivors, who  came  straggling  into  the  camp  of  General  White- 
side, were  full  of  panic,  anticipating  an  immediate  and  general 
attack  from  their  pursuers.     Such  was  "  Stillman's  defeat." 

The  consequence  of  this  affair  was  a  council  of  war  at  the 
tent  of  the  commander-in-chief,  and  a  decision  to  march, 
early  next  morning,  to  the  scene  of  that  evening's  misadven- 
ture. The  great  battle  which  Capt.  Lincoln  and  his  fellow- 
volunteers  had  come  so  far  to  participate  in,  seemed  now  on 
the  point  of  becoming  a  reality.  Notwithstanding  the  prema- 
ture advance  of  Whiteside  from  Prophetstown  had  left  them 
without  the  necessary  supplies,  and  subjected  them  to  the 
privations  so  well  known  to  experienced  soldiers,  yet  seldom 
encountered  so  early  in  a  campaign,  they  made  up  for  the 
absence  of  their  regular  provisions  as  best  they  might,  and 
were  ready,  with  the  dawn,  for  the  day's  undertaking.  But 
their  enemy  did  not  await  their  coming.  Arrived  at  the  scene 
of  yesterday's  skirmish  and  flight,  they  found  not  a  straggler 
of  all  the  savage  forces.  They  had  partly  gone  further  up 
the  river,  and  partly  dispersed,  to  commit  depredations  in  tha 


42 


l.IFE   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


surrounding  country.  One  party  of  them  came  suddenly 
upon  a  settlement  near  Ottawa,  and  massacred  fifteen  persons, 
carrying  two  young  women  into  captivity.  This  circumstance 
alone  is  sufficient  to  show  how  utterly  unfounded  was  the  pre- 
tense of  some  that  Black  Hawk  had  no  hostile  purpose,  in 
this  repudiation  of  his  treaty  engagements,  and  to  remove  any 
ground  for  the  mistaken  sympathy  which  many  have  expended 
upon  him. 

After  this  energetic  but  vain  attempt  to  fall  in  with  the 
enemy  and  give  him  battle,  Gen.  Whiteside,  having  buried  the 
dead  of  the  day  before,  returned  to  camp,  where  he  was  joined, 
nest  day,  by  Gen.  Atkinson,  with  his  troops  and  supplies. 
The  numbers  of  the  army  were  thus  increased  to  twenty-four 
hundred,  and  a  few  weeks  more  would  have  enabled  this  force 
to  bring  the  war  to  a  successful  close.  But  many  of  the  vol- 
unteers, whose  time  had  nearly  expired,  were  eager  to  be  dis- 
charged. They  had  seen  quite  ehough  of  the  hardships  of  a 
campaign,  which,  without  bringing  as  yet  any  glory,  had 
turned  out  in  reality  quite  different  from  what  their  ima^-ina- 
tions  had  foretold.  With  the  prevailing  discontents,  but  one 
course  was  possible.  The  volunteers  were  marched  to  Ottawa, 
where  they  were  discharged  by  Gov.  Reynolds,  on  the  27th 
and  28th  of  May. 

This  sudden  disbanding,  without  a  battle,  and  with  no 
results  accomplished,  was  a  disappointment  to  the  young 
captain  from  Menard  county.  Gov.  Reynolds  had  previously 
issued  a  call  for  two  thousand  new  volunteers,  to  assemble  at 
Beardstown  and  Hennepin.  In  accordance  with  the  wishes 
of  Lincoln  and  others,  who  were  still  ready  to  bear  their 
share  of  the  campaign,  to  its  close,  the  Governor  also  asked 
for  the  formation  of  a  volunteer  regiment  from  those  just  dis- 
charged. Lincoln  promptly  enrolled  himself  as  a  private,  as 
did  also  General  Whiteside. 

Before  the  arrival  of  the  other  levies,  a  skirmishing  fight 
with  the  Indians  was  had  at  Burr  Oak  Grove,  on  the  18th  of 
June,  in  which  the  enemy  was  defeated,  with  considerable 
loss,  and  on  the  side  of  the  volunteers,  two  killed  and  one 
wounded. 


LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  43 

The  Winnebagoes  and  Pottawatomies  now  showed  a  deeid- 
edly  hostile  disposition  toward  the  whites,  and  an  inclination 
to  join  the  movement  of  Black  Hawk.  Accordingly,  with  the 
appearance  of  the  new  levies,  which  had  been  divided  into 
three  regiments,  and  their  junction  with  the  regular  and  volun- 
teer forces  already  in  the  field — the  whole  number  of  volunteers 
alone  being  thirty-two  hundred — the  army  was  placed  in  a 
formidable  and  efi"ective  attitude  for  offensive  warfare.  Mean- 
time the  Indian  atrocities  continued,  their  acts  of  signal 
treachery  and  cruelty  rendering  an  efficient  prosecution  of  the 
war,  to  its  termination,  indispensable.  Galena,  then  a  village 
of  about  four  hundred  inhabitants,  was  surrounded  by  the  des- 
perate enemy,  and  in  imminent  danger  of  attack.  Apple 
River  Fort,  twelve  miles  from  Galena,  had  already  been  made 
the  object  of  a  fierce  and  persevering  attack,  by  Black  Hawk 
himself  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  of  his  warriors,  and  obstinately 
defended  by  twenty-five  men,  during  fifteen  hours  of  constant 
fio-litino-,  endine;  with  the  retreat  of  the  Indians,  with  no  slight 
loss.  Within  the  fort,  one  man  was  killed  and  another 
wounded.  Straggling  parties  of  Indians,  at  various  points, 
made  attacks  upon  the  whites,  producing  constant  alarm  and 
excitement,  through  that  part  of  the  country. 

The  new  forces,  under  command  of  Gen.  Atkinson,  of 
the  regular  army,  were  at  length  put  in  motion,  detachments 
being  sent  out  in  different  directions.  A  severe  fight  was  had 
at  Kellogg's  Grove,  in  the  midst  of  the  Indian  country,  on  the 
25th  of  June,  resulting  in  the  retreat  of  the  Indians,  with 
much  loss.  Five  whites  were  killed,  and  three  wounded.  A 
detachment  under  Gen.  Alexander  was  stationed  in  a  position 
to  intercept  the  Indians,  should  they  attempt  to  recross  the 
Mississippi. 

Meanwhile,  it  was  understood  that  Black  Hawk  had  concen- 
trated his  forces,  in  a  fortified  position,  at  the  Four  Lakes, 
awaiting  the  issue  of  a  general  battle.  Gen.  Atkinson  moved  in 
that  direction,  with  all  possible  celerity,  and  encamped  a  mile 
above  Turtle  Village,  on  the  open  prairie,  not  far  from  Rock 
river,  on  the  30th  of  June.  The  appearance  of  hostile  Indians, 
prowling  around  his  encampment,  showed  that  their  progress 


44  LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

•was  watched,  but  they  were  not  attacked.  Next  day,  with 
numerous  reinforcements.  Gen.  Atkinson's  troops  reached 
Burnt  Village,  a  Winnebago  town  on  the  Whitewater  river. 
They  were  now  in  a  strange  country,  in  which,  for  want  of 
correct  information,  they  were  obliged  to  advance  slowly  and 
cautiously.  There  were  traces  of  hostile  Indians  in  the  vicin- 
ity, and  next  day  two  soldiers,  at  a  little  distance  from  the 
camp,  were  fired  vipon  by  them,  and  one  seriously  wounded. 
But  from  this  point  it  was  difficult  to  discover  the  trail  of  the 
enemy. 

Nearly  two  months  had  now  passed  since  the  opening  of  the 
campaign,  and  its  purpose  seemed  as  remote  from  accomplish- 
ment as  ever.  The  new  volunteers  had  many  of  them  become 
discontented,  like  the  former  ones.  Their  number  had  in  fact 
become  reduced  one-half.  The  wearisome  marches,  the  delays, 
the  privations  and  exposures,  had  proved  to  them  that  this 
service  was  no  pastime,  and  that  its  romance  was  not  what  it 
seemed  in  the  distance.  They  sickened  of  such  service,  and 
were  glad  to  escape  from  its  restraints.  Not  so,  however,  with 
Lincoln,  who  had  found  in  reality  the  kind  of  exciting  adven- 
ture which  his  spirit  craved.  While  others  murmured,  and 
took  their  departure,  he  remained  true  and  persistent,  no  less 
eager  for  the  fray,  or  ambitious  to  play  a  genuine  soldier's 
part,  than  at  the  beginning.  To  him  it  had  been  what  his 
imagination  painted,  and  he  had  a  hearty  earnestness  in  his 
work  that  kept  him  cheerful,  and  strongly  attached  others 
to  him. 

It  was  not  destined,  however,  that  he  should  be  actively 
engaged  in  any  battle  more  serious  than  those  encounters 
already  mentioned.  The  forces  were  divided  and  dispersed  in 
different  directions,  on  the  10th  of  July,  with  a  view  to  obtain- 
ing supplies.  Two  days  later,  news  was  received  that  Black 
Hawk  was  thirty-five  miles  above  Gen.  Atkinson,  on  Rock 
river.  A  plan  of  Generals  Alexander,  Henry,  and  others,  to 
take  him  by  surprise,  without  awaiting  orders,  was  frustrated 
by  their  troops  refusing  to  follow  them.  Gen.  Henry  finally 
set  out  in  pursuit  of  the  Indians,  on  the  15th  of  July,  but  was 
misled    by    treachery.      He    continued    on    for    several    days, 


LIFE    OF    AURAIIAM    LINCOLN.  45 

acquiring  better  information,  passing  the  beautiful  country 
around  the  Four  Lakes,  the  present  site  of  Madison,  Wiscon- 
sin, and  after  another  day's  hard  march  came  close  upon  the 
retreating  Indians,  and  finally  overtook  them  on  the  21st. 
They  were  immediately  charged  upon,  and  driven  along  the 
high  bluffs  of  the  Wisconsin,  and  down  upon  the  river  bottom. 
The  Indians  lost  sixty-eight  killed,  and  of  the  large  number 
wounded,  twenty-five  were  afterward  found  dead  on  their  trail 
leading  to  the  Mississippi.  The  regulars,  in  this  engagement 
on  the  Wisconsin,  were  commanded  by  Gen.  (then  Col.) 
Zachary  Taylor,  afterward  President  of  the  United  States. 
Gen.  Henry,  of  Illinois,  and  Col.  Dodge  (afterward  United 
States  Senator),  were  chief  commanders  of  the  volunteers. 

Waiting  two  days  at  the  Blue  Mounds,  the  forces  still  in 
the  field  were  all  united,  and  a  hard  pursuit  resumed  through 
the  forests,  down  the  Wisconsin.  On  the  fourth  day,  they 
reached  the  Mississippi,  which  some  of  the  Indians  had  already 
crossed,  while  the  others  were  preparing  to  do  so.  The  battle 
of  the  Bad-Ax  here  brought  the  war  to  a  close,  with  the  cap- 
ture of  Black  Hawk  and  his  surviving  warriors. 

Mr.  Lincoln,  as  yet  a  youth  of  but  twenty-three,  faithfully 
discharged  his  duty  to  his  country,  as  a  soldier,  persevering 
amid  peculiar  hardships,  and  against  the  influences  of  older 
men  around  him,  during  the  three  months'  service  of  this  his 
first  and  last  military  campaign. 

Sarcastically  commenting  on  the  efforts  of  Gen.  Cass's  biog- 
raphers to  render  him  conspicuous  as  a  military  hero,  Mr. 
Lincoln,  in  a  Congressional  speech,  delivered  during  the  can- 
vass of  1848,  made  a  humorous  and  characteristic  reference  to 
his  own  experiences  as  a  soldier.  We  give  his  language  on 
this  occasion,  as  a  suitable  pendant  to  our  sketch  of  this  period 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  youth  : 

"  By  the  way,  Mr.  Speaker,  did  you  know  I  am  a  military 
hero  ?  Yes,  sir,  in  the  days  of  the  Black  Hawk  war,  I  fought, 
bled,  and  came  away.  Speaking  of  Gen.  Cass's  career,  reminds 
me  of  my  own.  I  was  not  at  Stillman's  defeat,  but  I  was 
about  as  near  it  as  Cass  to  Hull's  surrender;  and  like  him,  I 
Baw  the  place  very  soon  afterward.     It  is  quite  certain  I  did 


46  LIFE   OP    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

not  break  my  sword,  for  I  bad  none  to  break  ;  but  I  bent  a 
musket  pretty  badly  on  one  occasion.  If  Cass  broke  bis  sword, 
tbe  idea  is,  be  broke  it  in  desperation ;  I  bent  tbe  musket  by 
accident.  If  Gen.  Cass  went  in  advance  of  me  in  picking 
wbortleberries,  I  guess  I  surpassed  bim  in  cbarges  upon  tbe 
wild  onions.  If  he  saw  any  live,  fighting  Indians,  it  was  more 
than  I  did,  but  I  bad  a  good  many  bloody  struggles  with  the 
musquitoes ;  and  although  I  never  fainted  from  loss  of  blood, 
I  can  truly  say  I  was  often  very  hungry. 

"  Mr.  Speaker,  if  I  should  ever  conclude  to  doff  whatever 
our  Democratic  friends  may  suppose  there  is  of  black-cockade 
Federalism  about  me,  and,  thereupon,  they  should  take  me  up 
as  their  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  I  protest  they  shall  not 
make  fun  of  me  as  they  have  of  Gen.  Cass,  by  attempting  to 
■write  me  into  a  military  hero." 


LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  47 


CHAPTER  y. 

EIGHT  YEARS  IN  THE   LEGISLATURE  OF  ILLINOIS — 1834-41. 

A  New  Period  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  Life. — His  Political  Opinions. — Clay 
and  Jackson. — His  first  Run  as  a  Candidate  for  Representative. — His 
Election  in  1834. — Illinois  Strongly  Democratic. — Mr.  Lincoln  as  a 
Surveyor. — Land  Speculation  Mania. — Mr.  Lincoln's  First  Appear- 
ance in  the  Legislature. — Banks  and  Internal  Improvements. — Whig 
Measures  Democratically  Botched. — First  Meeting  of  Lincoln  with 
Douglas. — The  Latter  Seeks  an  Office  of  the  Legislature  and  Gets  it. 
—Mr.  Lincoln  Re-elected  in  1836. — Mr.  Douglas  also  a  Member  of 
the  House.  —  Distinguished  Associates.  —  Internal  Improvements 
Again. — Mr.  Lincoln's  Views  on  Slavery. — The  Capital  Removed  to 
Springfield.— The  New  Metropolis.— The  Revulsion  of  1887.— Mr. 
Lincoln  Chosen  for  a  Third  Term. — John  Calhoun  of  Lecompton 
Memory. — Lincoln  the  AVhig  Leader,  and  Candidate  for  Speaker. — 
Close  Vote. — First  Session  at  Springfield. — Lincoln  Re-elected  in 
1840. — Partizan  Remodeling  of  the  Supreme  Court. — Lincoln  Declines 
Further  Service  in  the  Legislature. — His  Position  as  a  Statesman  at 
the  Close  of  this  Period. — A  Tribune  of  the  People. 

We  now  approach  tlie  period  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  transition  to 
the  more  natural  position  in  ■which,  as  a  professional  man  and 
a  statesman,  he  was  to  attain  that  success  and  eminence  for 
which  his  rare  endowments  fitted  him.  Hitherto,  he  had  been 
unconsciously  undergoing  a  varied  training,  the  whole  tendency 
of  which,  if  rightly  subjected  afterward  to  a  high  purpose  in 
life,  could  not  fail  to  be  adrantageous.  He  had  learned  much 
of  the  world,  and  of  men,  and  gained  some  true  knowledge  of 
himself.  The  discipline  of  those  hard  years  of  toil  and  penury, 
so  manfully  and  cheerfully  gone  through  with,  was  of  more 
value  to  him,  as  time  was  to  prove,  than  any  heritage  of  wealth 
or  of  ancestral  eminence  could  have  been.  Still  the  conflict 
with  an  adverse  fortune  was  to  continue ;  but  from  this  time 


48  LIFE    OF    ABRAUAM    LINCOLN. 

onward,  a  more  genial  future  began  to  sliape  itself  in  tlie  hopes 
and  aspirations  of  the  self-reliant  youth.  His  later  experi- 
ences had  shown  him  more  clearly  that  he  was  not  to  be  a 
mere  private  in  the  great  battle  of  life,  but  that  he  had  certain 
qualities  which  could  place  him  at  the  head  of  a  column  or  of 
a  brigade,  if  he  were  so  minded.  Nor  was  he  indifferent  to 
the  good  opinion  of  his  fellow-men.  The  confessed  satisfac- 
tion which  the  captaincy  of  a  company  of  volunteers  had  given 
him,  as  the  expressed  preference  of  a  hundred  or  two  of  asso- 
ciates for  him  above  all  others,  as  a  leader,  showed  that,  however 
distrustful  as  yet  of  his  own  powers,  he  was  not  without  ambi- 
tion, or  unable  to  appreciate  popular  honors. 

This  campaign  likewise,  besides  the  excitements  of  varied 
adventure  which  it  afforded,  so  much  to  his  natural  inclination, 
had  brought  him  in  contact  with  inspiring  influences  and 
associations,  and  had  demonstrated,  and  doubtless  improved,  his 
powers  of  fixing  the  esteem  and  admiration  of  those  around 
him.  He  had  been,  as  is  told  of  him,  a  wild  sort  of  a  boy, 
and  in  his  peculiar  way  he  had  attached  his  associates  to  him 
to  a  remarkable  degree.  This  will  be  seen  from  a  circum- 
stance to  be  presently  related.  His  horizon  had  been  enlarged 
and  his  dreams  ennobled.  Meantime,  it  is  to  be  remembered, 
that  he  had  come  home  from  the  Black  Hawk  war  with  no 
definite  business  to  resort  to,  and  still  under  a  necessity  of 
devoting  his  chief  and  immediate  energies  to  self-support. 

He  has,  then,  reached  a  new  epoch  of  his  youth,  at  this 
date,  and  entered  on  another  distinct  period  of  his  history. 
Proof  of  this  we  shall  find  in  the  fact  that  he  became,  on 
returning  home,  a,  candidate  for  representative  in  the  State 
Legislature,  the  election  of  which  was  close  at  hand.  A 
youth  of  twenty-three,  and  not  at  all  generally  known  through 
the  county,  or  able,  in  the  brief  time  allowed,  to  make  him- 
self so,  it  may  have  an  appearance  of  presumption  for  him  to 
have  allowed  the  use  of  his  name  as  a  candidate.  He  was  not 
elected,  certainly,  and  could  hardly  have  thought  such  an  event 
possible ;  yet  the  noticeable  fiict  remains  that  he  received  so 
wonderful  a  vote  in  his  own  precinct,  where  he  was  best 
if  not  almost  exclusively  known,  as  may  almost  be  said  to 


LII'K    Oi-'    AI;HAI!AM    LINCOLN.  49 

have  made  his  fortune.  Ills  precinct  (he  had  now  settled  in 
Sangamon  county)  was  strongly  for  Jackson,  while  Lincoln 
had,  from  the  start,  warmly  espoused  the  cause  of  Henry  Clay. 
The  State  election  occurred  in  August,  and  the  Presidential 
election  two  or  three  months  later,  the  same  season.  Political 
feeling  ran  high,  at  this  the  second  election  (as  it  proved)  of 
Jackson.  Notwithstanding  this,  such  was  the  popularity 
which  young  Lincoln  had  brought  home  with  him  from  the 
war,  that  out^of  the  two  hundred  and  eighty-four  votes  cast 
in  his  precinct,  two  hundred  and  seventy-seven — the  entire 
vote  wanting  seven — were  cast  for  him.  Yet,  a  little  later  in 
the  same  canvass.  Gen,  Jackson  received  a  majority  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty-five  for  the  Presidency,  from  the  very  same 
men,  over  Mr.  Clay,  whose  cause  Lincoln  was  known  to  favor. 
So  marked  an  indication  as  this  of  his  personal  power  to  draw 
votes,  made  him  a  political  celebrity  at  once.  In  future  elec- 
tions it  became  a  point  with  aspirants  to  seek  to  combine  his 
strength  in  their  favor,  by  placing  Lincoln's  name  on  their 
ticket,  to  secure  his  battalion  of  voters.  When  he  was  elected 
to  the  Legislature  for  the  first  time,  two  years  later,  his  major- 
ity ranged  about  two  hundred  votes  higher  than  the  rest  of  the 
ticket  on  which  he  ran. 

Such  was  the  beginning  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  political  life,  almost 
in  his  boyhood.  This  is  the  proper  place  to  pause  and  review, 
in  a  brief  way,  the  state  of  political  aflfairs  in  Illinois,  at 
the  time  of  his  first  appearance  upon  this  public  arena.  "We 
shall  find  the  revolution  which  has  been  wrought — Mr.  Lin- 
coln, though  for  long  years  in  an  apparently  hopeless  minority 
in  the  State,  having  been  always  a  foremost  leader  on  the  side 
opposed  to  the  Democracy — to  be  scarcely  less  remarkable  than 
his  youthful  successes  at  the  polls. 

At  the  date  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  arrival — when  just  of  age — in 
the  State  of  Illinois,  Gen.  Jackson  was  in  the  midst  of  his 
first  Presidential  term.  Since  1826  every  general  election  in 
that  State  had  resulted  decisively  in  favor  of  his  friends. 
In  August,  1830,  the  first  election  after  Lincoln  became  a 
resident  of  the  State,  and  before  he  was  a  qualified  voter,  the 
only  rival  candidates  for  Governor,  were  both  of  the  same 
5 


50  L1F>:    OF    AliU.MIA.M    LINCOLN. 

strongly  predominant  party.  The  Legislature  then  elected 
had  a  large  majority  on  that  side:  In  1832,  Gen.  Jackson 
received  the  electoral  vote  of  Illinois,  for  the  second  time, 
by  a  decisive  majority.  The  Legislature  of  183-4  was  so 
strongly  Democratic,  that  the  Whig  members  did  not  have 
any  candidates  of  their  own,  in  organizing  the  House,  but 
chose  rather  to  exercise  the  little  power  they  had  in  favor  of 
such  Democratic  candidate  as  they  preferred.  Against  such 
odds,  as  we  shall  see,  the  opponents  of  that  party  struggled 
long  and  in  vain.  Even  the  great  political  tornado  which 
swept  over  so  large  a  portion  of  the  Union  in  1840,  made  no 
decisive  impression  upon  Illinois.  In  spite  of  all  these  diffi- 
culties and  discouragements,  Mr.  Lincoln  adhered  steadily  to 
his  faith,  never  once  dreaming  of  seeking  profit  in  compliance, 
or  in  a  compromise  of  his  honest  principles.  Henry  Clay  was 
his  model  as  a  statesman,  and  always  continued  such,  while 
any  issues  were  left  to  contend  for,  of  the  celebrated  American 
system  of  the  great  Kentuckian. 

During  the  time  Mr.  Lincoln  was  pursuing  his  law  studies, 
and  making  his  first  practical  acquaintance  with  political  life, 
he  turned  his  attention  to  the  business  of  a  surveyor  as  a 
means  of  support.  The  mania  for  speculation  in  Western 
lands  and  lots  was  beginning  to  spread  over  the  country  at  this 
time  ;  and  while  our  j'oung  student  of  law  had  neither  means 
nor  inclination  to  embark  in  any  such  enterprise  for  himself,  it 
was  the  means  of  bringing  him  some  profitable  employment 
with  the  chain  and  compass.  From  the  earliest  grand  center 
of  these  operations  in  land  and  town  lots,  Chicago,  which  had 
also  itself  furnished,  even  then,  most  remarkable  examples  of 
fortunes  easily  made,  the  contagion  spread  everywhere  through 
the  State.  Towns  and  cities  without  number  were  laid  out  in 
all  directions,  and  innumerable  fortunes  were  made,  in  anti- 
cipation, by  the  purchase  of  lots  in  all  sorts  of  imaginary  cities* 
during  the  four  or  five  years  preceding  the  memorable  crisis 
and  crash  of  1837.  It  was  during  the  year  previous  to  that 
consummation,  that  this  business  had  reached  its  hight  in 
Illinois.  With  the  revulsion,  came  also  a  brief  period  of 
adversity  to  the  successful  surveyor,  whose  occupation  was  now 


LIFE    or    A»R\.H\"M    LIN'.'Uf.y.  51 

gone.  It  is  said  that  even  his  surveying  instruments  were 
sold  under  the  hammer.  But  this  change  only  served  to  estab- 
lish him  more  exclusively  and  permanently  in  his  profession 
of  the  law. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  first  election  to  the  Illinois  Legislature,  as  has 
been  stated,  was  in  1834.  His  associates  on  the  ticket  were  Major 
John  T.  Stuart  (two  or  three  years  later  elected  to  Congress)) 
John  Dawson  and  William  Carpenter.  All  were  decided  Clay 
men,  or,  as  the  party  in  that  State  was  first  styled,  Democratic 
Republicans.  About  this  time,  the  name  of  Whigs  had  begun 
to  be  their  current  designation.  Lincoln  was  the  youngest 
member  of  this  Legislature,  with  the  single  exception  of  Hon. 
Jesse  K.  Dubois,  of  Lawrence  county,  now  Auditor  of  State 
in  Illinois,  who  served  with  him  during  his  entire  legislative 
career.  He  had  not  yet  acquired  position  as  a  lawyer,  or  even 
been  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  had  his  reputation  to  make,  no 
less,  as  a  politician  and  orator.  At  this  time  he  was  very  plain 
in  his  costume,  as  well  as  rather  uncourtly  in  his  address  and 
general  appearance.  His  clothing  was  of  homely  Kentucky 
jean,  and  the  first  impression  made  by  his  tall,  lank  figure, 
upon  those  who  saw  him,  was  not  specially  prepossessing.  He 
had  not  outgrown  his  hard  backwoods  experience,  and  showed 
no  inclination  to  disguise  or  to  cast  behind  him  the  honest  and 
manly,  though  unpolished  characteristics  of  his  earlier  days. 
Never  was  a  man  further  removed  from  all  snobbish  affectation. 
As  little  was  there,  also,  of  the  demagogue  art  of  assuming  an 
uncouthness  or  rusticity  of  manner  and  outward  habit,  with  the 
mistaken  notion  of  thus  securing  particular  favor  as  "  one  of 
the  masses."  He  chose  to  appear  then,  as  he  has  at  all  times 
since,  precisely  what  he  was.  His  deportment  was  unassuming, 
though  without  any  awkwardness  of  reserve. 

During  this,  his  first  session  in  the  Legislature,  he  was 
taking  lessons,  as  became  his  youth  and  inexperience,  and 
preparing  himself  for  the  future,  by  close  observation  and 
attention  to  business,  rather  than  by  a  prominent  participation 
in  debate.  He  seldom  or  never  took  the  floor  to  speak, 
although  before  the  close  of  this  and  the  succeeding  special 
session  of  the  same  Legislature,  he  had  shown,  as  previously 


52  LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    UNi  uLN. 

in  every  other  capacity  in  -which  he  was  engaged,  qualities  that, 
clearly  pointed  to  him  as  fitted  to  act  a  leading  part.  One  of 
his  associates  from  Sangamon  county,  Maj.  Stuart,  was  now 
the  most  prominent  member  on  the  Whig  side  of  the  House. 

The  organization  of  this  Legislature  was  of  course  in  the 
hands  of  the  Democrats.  The  Speaker  was  Hon.  James 
Semple,  afterward  United  States  Senator.  In  the  selection  of 
his  committees,  he  assigned  Lincoln  the  second  place  on  the 
Committee  on  Public  Accounts  and  Expenditures,  as  if  with 
an  intuition,  in  advance  of  acquaintance,  of  the  propriety  of 
setting  "  Honest  Abe  "  to  look  after  the  public  treasury. 

Hon.  Joseph  Duncan,  then  a  member  of  Congress,  had  been 
elected  Governor  at  the  same  time  this  Legislature  was  chosen, 
over  Mr.  Kinney,  also  a  Democrat,  and  of  what  was  then  termed 
the  "whole  hog  "  Jackson  school.  Notwithstanding  the  strong 
preponderance  of  the  Democrats  in  both  branches  of  the  Legis- 
lature, and  in  the  State,  it  is  noticeable  that  in  the  distinguish- 
ing measures  of  Whig  policy,  in  this  as  in  subsequent  years, 
the  minority  found  their  principles  repeatedly  in  the  ascendant, 
though  unable  to  control  the  details  of  their  practical  applica- 
tion. This  was  true  more  particularly  in  regard  to  banks  and 
internal  improvements.  Though  inferior  in  numbers,  the 
Whigs  had  superiority  in  ability,  and  in  the  real  popularity 
and  genuine  democracy  of  their  doctrines. 

Greneral  attention  had  now  come  to  be  strongly  fixed  upon 
the  remarkable  natural  advantages  and  resources  of  the  new 
State  of  Illinois.  Land  speculation,  as  we  have  seen,  had 
already  begun  to  bring  in  Eastern  money,  and  the  population 
was  rapidly  increasing.  According  to  the  Whig  policy,  it  now 
became  desirable  that  every  proper  and  reasonable  legislative 
aid  should  be  aiforded  to  further  the  development  of  the  latent 
power  of  this  young  commonwealth,  and  its  progress  toward 
the  high  rank  among  the  States  of  the  Mississippi  valley,  which 
had  been  indicated  and  provided  for  by  nature.  Despite  the 
strong  Democratic  predominancy  in  this  Legislature,  therefore, 
a  new  State  bank,  with  a  capital  of  one  million  and  five  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  was  incorporated,  and  the  Illinois  bank 
at  Shawneetown,  which  had  suspended  for  twelve  years,  was 


I.IFK    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  53 

rechartered,  with  a  capital  of  three  hundred  thousand  dollars. 
It  ia  to  be  noticed,  however,  that  this  bank  legislation,  just  like 
that  of  many  other  States,  similarly  circumstanced,  while  it 
fully  indorsed  the  Whig  policy,  in  its  fundamental  principle, 
was  by  no  means  so  skillfully  done  or  so  safely  guarded  as  it 
should  have  been,  and  habitually  was  done  in  those  States 
where  the  Whigs  were  in  the  ascendant.  Whatever  troubles 
have  accrued  in  Illinois,  under  this  head,  have  been  chiefly 
due  to  the  fact  that  Whig  measures  were  not  rightly  shaped 
and  executed  by  Democratic  hands.  Whig  measures, 
framed  and  carried  out  by  Democrats,  have  too  often  ended  in 
a  mere  botch.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  observable  that  these 
imperfect,  yet  plausible  concessions  to  the  public  welfare,  have 
often  saved  the  Democratic  party,  at  the  expense  of  the  real 
interest  involved.  The  State  bank  charter  passed  the  House 
of  Representatives  by  one  majority. 

This  Legislature  also  gave  some  attention  to  what  are 
technically  called  internal  improvements  within  the  State.  In 
behalf  of  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal,  the  company  for 
constructing  which  had  been  incorporated  in  1825,  a  loan  was 
agitated  at  the  first  session.  Congress  had  granted  for  thia 
work,  in  1826,  about  300,000  acres  of  land  on  the  proposed 
route  of  the  canal.  But  for  a  special  message  of  Gov.  Duncan, 
maintaining  that  the  desired  loan  could  be  effected  on  a  pledge 
of  these  canal  lands  alone,  it  is  probable  that  the  loan  bill, 
reported  by  a  Senator  from  Sangamon  county,  named  George 
Forquer,  would  have  passed.  At  the  next  session,  in  1835, 
this  measure  was  carried,  a  bill  pledging  the  credit  of  the  State 
in  behalf  of  the  Canal  Company,  lo  the  amount  originally  pro- 
posed, having  become  a  law.  The  loan  was  negotiated  by  Gov. 
Duncan  the  next  year,  and  the  work  on  this  important  canal 
was  commenced  in  June,  1836.  At  the  same  special  session,  a 
large  number  of  railroads,  without  State  aid,  were  chartered,  in- 
cluding the  Illinois  Central  and  the  Galena  and  Chicago  routes. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  state  more  distinctly  that  these 
measures,  securing,  with  all  the  defects  of  their  origin,  immense 
benefits  to  the  people  of  Illinois,  and  in  their  spirit  accordant 
with  the  great  principles  of  the  "  American  system,"  were  sup- 


54  '       lACt    OF   AHKAUAM    LINCOLN. 

ported  by  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  Whig  associates.  Not  what 
they  desired,  these  measures  were  yet  the  nearest  approach  to 
their  wishes  that  could  be  obtained  of  the  majority. 

It  was  during  the  regular  session  of  this  Legislature,  that 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  not  himself  a  member,  became  first  known 
to  Mr.  Lincoln.  Late  in  the  year  1S33,  Mr.  Douglas,  then  in 
his  twenty-first  year,  had  migrated  to  Illinois  (Vermont  being 
his  native  State),  and  commenced  teaching  a  district  school  in 
Winchester,  Scott  county.  During  the  succeeding  year,  he 
gave  a  portion  of  his  time  to  the  study  of  law,  taking  part  also 
in  the  political  afi'airs  of  his  locality.  The  Legislature,  at  this 
session,  had  taken  from  the  Governor  the  power  of  appointing 
State's  attorneys  for  the  several  judicial  districts,  and  provided 
that  these  ofiieers  should  be  elected  by  the  Legislature,  in  joint 
convention.  Though  he  had  been  but  a  little  more  than  a  year 
in  the  State,  and  was  scarcely  to  be  regarded  as  an  expert  in 
the  profession  of  the  law,  Mr.  Douglas  presented  himself  before 
the  Legislature  as  a  candidate  for  State's  attorney  for  the  first 
judicial  district,  against  Mr".  Hardin,  a  distinguished  lawyer, 
then  in  office.  The  movement  was  so  adroit,  that  the  youthful 
advocate  distanced  his  unsuspecting  competitor,  receiving  thirty- 
eight  votes  to  thirty-six  cast  against  him.  At  this  time,  young 
Douglas  was  as  thin  in  flesh  as  he  is  short  in  stature.  Mr. 
Lincoln  has  since  remarked,  that  on  this  the  first  occasion  of 
their  meeting,  Douglas  "had  no  flesh  on  him,"  and  was  physi- 
cally "  the  least  man  he  ever  saw." 

In  1836,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected  for  a  second  term,  as  one 
of  the  seven  representatives  from  Sangamon  county.  Among 
his  associates  were  Mr.  Dawson,  re-elected,  and  Ninian  W. 
Edwards.  Mr.  Douglas  was  one  of  the  representatives  from 
Morgan  county  (to  which  he  had  recently  removed),  and  along 
with  him  Mr.  Hardin,  whom  he  had  managed  to  supersede  as 
State's  attorney  in  1835.  The  latter  (who  was  subsequently  in 
Congress,  and  who  fell  at  BuenaVista)  was  the  only  Whig  elected 
from  that  county,  the  other  five  representatives  being  Demo- 
crats. This  canvass  in  Morgan  county  is  memorable  for 
introducing  in  Illinois,  through  the  aid  of  Douglas,  the 
convention  system,  the  benefit  of  which  he  was  subsequently 


LIFE    OF    ABHAHAM     i.lNCM.V.  55 

to  reap  in  the  local  contests  of  that  State.  He  had  been  put  on 
the  representative  ticket  to  fill  a  vacancy  occasioned  by  the 
declinature  of  one  of  the  candidates,  having  failed  himself 
in  this  instance  to  secure  a  nomination  from  the  convention. 
He  was  never  again  elected  to  the  Legislature,  having  in  fact 
vacated  his  seat  after  the  first  session,  and  accepted  the  federal 
appointment  of  Register  in  the  land  office  at  Springfield. 

In  this  body,  as  in  that  which  immediately  preceded,  the 
Democrats  had  a  decided  majority.  Gren.  Semple  was  re-elected 
Speaker.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  assigned  a  place  on  the  Com- 
mittee of  Finance.  In  addition  to  those  we  have  already 
named,  the  House  included  many  men  of  ability,  who  have 
been  distinguished  in  the  politics  of  the  State  or  of  the  nation, 
among  whom  were  James  Shields,  Augustus  C.  French,  Robert 
Smith,  John  Dougherty,  W.  A.  Richardson,  and  John  A.  Mc- 
Clernand.  At  the  two  sessions  of  this  Legislature,  in  1836 
and  '37,  Mr.  Lincoln  came  forward  more  prominently  in  debate, 
gradually  becoming  recognized  as  the  leading  man  on  the 
Whig  side. 

The  subject  of  internal  improvements  became  one  of  the 
most  prominent  ones  before  this  Legislature,  as  had  happened 
with  the  last.  Of  this  policy,  in  a  judiciously  guarded  form, 
Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  from  the  first  a  staunch  and  efficient 
advocate.  He  held  it  to  be  the  duty  of  Government  to  extend 
its  fostering  aid,  in  every  Constitutional  way,  and  to  a  reason- 
able extent,  to  whatever  enterprise  of  public  utility  required 
such  assistance,  in  order  to  the  fullest  development  of  the 
natural  resources,  and  to  the  most  rapid  healthful  growth  of 
the  State.  The  Democratic  party,  while  professing  the  let- 
alone  (laissez-faire)  principle  in  general,  was  compelled  to  fol- 
low pretty  closely  in  the  wake  of  its  adversary,  in  some  of  its 
most  distinctive  features  of  public  policy.  The  question  of 
internal  improvements  was  one  of  these.  And  while  the  Dem- 
ocrats had  a  decided  majority  of  the  members  of  each  House, 
it  was  understood  that,  by  the  aid  of  pledges  made  contrary  to 
Democratic  teaching  in  general,  a  majority  for  liberal  legisla- 
tion in  regard  to  internal  improvements  had  likewise  been 
secured.     The  business,  in  fact,  under  the  grand  excitement  of 


66  LIFE    Of    AliKAIlAM    LINCOLN. 

the  flush  times  of  1S3G,  vras  somewhat  overdone,  and  through 
subsequent  mismanagement  and  the  revulsion  of  the  next  year, 
matters  were  eventually  made  still  worse.  The  voice  of  the 
people  was  overwhelmingly  in  favor  of  the  legislation  which 
was  granted.  Even  "Whigs  like  Mr.  Lincoln,  were  outstripped 
by  some  ardent  Democrats — Mr.  Douglas  among  them — in  zeal 
for  these  improvements  ;  they  having  unfortunately,  as  noticed 
in  the  case  of  bank-legislation,  in  appropriating  the  principle, 
failed  to  understand  its  most  skillful  and  safe  application  in 
practice. 

At  the  first  session  of  1836-7,  about  1,300  miles  of  railroad 
were  provided  for,  in  various  quarters,  the  completion  of  the  Illi- 
nois and  Michigan  Canal,  from  Chicago  to  Peru,  and  the  im- 
provement of  the  navigation  of  the  Kaskaskia,  Illinois,  Rock, 
and  Great  and  Little  Wabash  rivers  ;  requiring  in  all  a  loan  of 
^8,000,000.  This  included  the  novel  appropriation  of  $200,000 
to  be  distributed  among  those  counties  through  which  none  of 
the  proposed  improvements  were  to  be  made.  The  system 
voted  by  the  Legislature  was  on  a  most  magnificent  scale,  such 
as  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio  or  Indiana  had  not  surpassed. 
This  system  of  internal  improvement,  with  Democratic  varia- 
tions, having  scarcely  been  inaugurated  when  the  crash  of  1837 
came,  did  not  entirely  correspond  in  practice  with  what  it  had 
promised  in  theory. 

There  was  also  a  considerable  addition  made  to  the  banking 
capital  of  the  State  at  this  session. 

During  the  winter,  resolutions  of  an  extreme  Southern  char- 
acter, on  the  slavery  question,  were  introduced,  and,  after  dis- 
cussion, adopted  hj  the  Democratic  majority.  The  attempt 
was,  of  course,  made  to  afiix  a  character  of  abolitionism  to  all 
those  who  refused  assent  to  these  extreme  views.  At  that 
time,  the  public  sentiment  of  the  North  was  not  aroused  on 
the  subject,  as  it  became  a  few  years  later,  in  consequence  of 
pro-slavery  aggressions.  Yet  Mr.  Lincoln  refused  to  vote  for 
these  resolutions,  and  exercised  his  Constitutional  privilege, 
along  with  one  of  his  colleagues  from  Sangamon  county,  of 
entering  upon  the  Journal  of  the  House  his  reasons  for  thus 
acting.     As  showing  his  sentiments  twenty-three  years  ago, 


LIFE     OF    ABRAHAM     LINCOLN.  57 

on  this  now  so  prominent  national  question,  the  protest 
referred  to,  as  it  appears  on  the  journal,  is  here  appended 
in  full : 

March  3d,  1837. 

The  following  protest  was  presented  to  the  House,  which 
was  read  and  ordered  to  be  spread  on  the  journals,  to  wit: 

"  Resolutions  upon  the  subject  of  domestic  slavery  having 
passed  both  branches  of  the  General  Assembly,  at  its  present 
session,  the  undersigned  hereby  protest  against  the  passage 
of  the  same. 

"  They  believe  that  the  institution  of  slavery  is  founded  on 
both  injustice  and  bad  policy  ;  but  that  the  promulgation  of 
abolition  doctrines  tends  rather  to  increase  than  abate  its  evils. 

"  They  believe  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has 
no  power,  under  the  Constitution,  to  interfere  with  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery  in  the  different  States. 

"  They  believe  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has 
the  power,  under  the  Constitution,  to  abolish  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia ;  but  that  the  power  ought  not  to  be 
exercised,  unless  at  the  request  of  the  people  of  said  District. 

"  The  difference  between  these  opinions  and  those  contained 
in  the  said  resolutions,  is  their  reason  for  entering  this  protest. 
"  (Signed) 

"  Dan  Stone, 

•'  A.  Lincoln, 

^'' Representatives  from  the  County  of  Sangamon." 

On  the  formation  of  the  separate  Territory  of  Illinois,  in 
1809,  Kaskaskia,  perhaps  the  oldest  town  in  all  the  Western 
country,  had  been  designated  as  the  capital.  Such  it  con- 
tinued to  be  until  Illinois  was  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a 
State,  in  1818,  when  Vandalia,  far  up  the  Kaskaskia  river, 
was  laid  out  as  the  new  capital.  For  some  time  it  continued 
to  be  relatively  a  central  location.  But  during  several  years 
preceding  1837,  the  middle  and  northern  portions  of  the 
State  had  filled  so  rapidly  that  the  propriety  of  a  removal  of 
the  capital  to  a  point  nearer  the  geographical  center  had 
become  manifestly  expedient.  At  this  session,  accordingly, 
an  act  was  passed  changing  the  seat  of  government  to  Spring- 
field, the  principal  town  in  the  interior  of  the  State,  from  and 
after  the  4th  day  of  July,  1839.  To  the  people  of  Sangamon 
county,  whom  Mr.  Lincoln  represented,  this  was  of  course  a 
6 


58  LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

most  satisfactory  measure,  and  by  the  State  at  large  it  was 
received  with  general  approbation.  Vandalia,  v.hich  had 
reached  a  population  of  about  two  thousand,  dwindled  away 
for  a  time,  until  it  had  but  about  one-fourth  that  number  of 
inhabitants,  though  of  late  years  it  has  revived.  SpringBeld 
has  steadily  advanced,  since  this  period,  and  is  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  interior  towns  of  the  West.  The  prairie  coun- 
try for  scores  of  miles  around  is  as  charming  in  appearance 
and  as  fertile  in  its  productions  as  any  tract  of  like  extent  on 
the  face  of  the  earth.  It  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's good  taste  and  .sagacity  that,  when  he  came  to  his 
majority,  he  fixed  upon  such  a  locality  for  his  home,  fore- 
seeing for  this  spot  a  successful  future,  to  which  (altogether 
beyond  his  anticipation )  his  influence,  in  1836,  added  a 
material  advantage,  and  his  presence,  in  1860,  gives  a  national 
luster  of  renown. 

The  financial  disasters  of  the  spring  of  1837,  were  the 
occasion  of  an  extra  session  of  the  Legislature  of  Illinois  in 
July  of  that  year.  The  Governor  asked  for  the  legalization 
of  the  suspension  of  specie  payments  by  the  banks  of  the 
State,  which  a  majority  of  both  Houses  granted.  He  also 
asked  a  repeal  or  modification  of  the  internal  improve- 
ment system,  which  was  refused.  The  condition  of  afi'airs 
was  deemed  critical,  and  particularly  so  to  the  prospects  of  the 
Democratic  party,  which  had  just  been  congratulating  itself 
on  the  election  and  inauguration  of  the  successor  of  Gen. 
Jackson,  Martin  Van  Buren,  as  President.  In  Illinois,  that 
party  had  held  unbroken  and  decisive  sway,  from  the  days  of 
the  younger  Adams  down.  Whatever  looseness  of  legislation 
had  contributed  to  these  evils  at  home,  they  were  responsible 
for.  And  in  the  nation,  the  political  dangers  were  felt  to  be 
imminent — so  much  so  that  the  President  had  called  an  extra 
session  of  Congress.  There  was  a  want  of  Democratic  har- 
mony, however,  at  Washington  and  at  Vandalia.  The  doctors 
of  the  party  sat  in  council  at  the  latter  place,  during  the 
special  session,  but  in  the  Legislature  they  only  accomplished 
what  has  been  stated.  It  now  required  the  most  desper- 
ate  exertions  to  save  the  Democracy  from   defeat,  and  the 


LIFE    OP    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  59 

Whigs  actively  followed  up  their  advantages.  So  overwhelm- 
ing had  been  the  strength  of  their  opponents,  however,  from 
the  time  that  Mr.  Lincoln  first  appeared  on  the  political  stage, 
and  long  before,  that,  while  a  great  change  was  visible  in  the 
results  of  the  next  election,  the  revolution  was  not  yet  to  be 
completed. 

In  1838,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  for  the  third  time  elected  a  repre- 
sentative in  the  Legislature,  for  the  two  years  ensuing. 
Among  the  other  six  representatives  of  Sangamon  county  was 
John  Calhoun,  since  notorious  for  his  connection  with  the 
Lecompton  Constitution.  Availing  himself  of  some  local 
issue  or  other,  and  being  a  man  of  conceded  ability,  of  highly 
respectable  "Whig  antecedents  and  connections,  he  had  slipped 
in  by  a  small  majority,  crowding  out  the  lowest  candidate  on 
the  Whig  ticket.  The  remaining  five  were  Whigs,  including 
E.  D.  Baker,  Niuian  W.  Edwards,  and  A.  McCormick.  The 
strength  of  the  two  parties  in  the  House  was  nearly  evenly 
balanced,  the  Democrats  having  only  three  or  four  majority, 
rendering  this  unexpected  gain  particularly  acceptable. 

So  well  recognized  was  now  the  position  of  Mr.  Lincoln  in 
his  party  that,  by  general  consent,  he  received  the  Whig  vote 
for  the  Speakership.  There  was  a  close  contest,  his  Demo- 
cratic competitor  being  Col.  William  Lee  D.  Ewing,  who  had 
served  with  Lincoln  in  the  Black  Hawk  war.  On  the  fourth 
ballot,  Ewing  had  a  majority  of  one  over  all  others,  two 
Whigs  (including  Mr.  Lincoln)  and  two  Democrats  having 
scattered  their  votes. 

At  the  State  election,  in  August,  1838,  the  Whig  candidate 
for  Governor  made  an  excellent  run,  but  was  defeated  by 
Thomas  Carlin,  Democrat.  State  affairs  were  hardly  brought 
in  issue  in  the  general  canvass.  A  majority  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, at  the  first  session,  was  opposed  to  the  repeal  or  modifi- 
cation of  the  public  works  system,  but  voted  additional 
expenditures  thereon,  to  the  amount  of  8800,000.  At  a 
special  session,  however,  this  body  repealed  the  system,  and 
made  provisions  for  its  gradual  winding  up.  Mr.  Lincoln,  as 
the  Whig  leader,  had  his  position  on  the  Committee  on 
Finance,  and  exerted  his  influence  in  favor  of  wise  counsels, 


60  LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

and  such  a  determination  of  affairs  as  would  best  remedy  the 
evils  resulting  from  this  loose  Democratic  tampering  with 
measures  of  "Whig  policy. 

Aside  from  these  financial  questions,  there  were  few  matters 
of  any  general  interest  before  this  Legislature.  This  session 
of  1838-9  was  the  last  held  at  Vandalia.  A  special  session  in 
1S39,  inaugurated  the  new  state-house  at  Springfield.  The 
great  contest  of  IS-IO  was  already  casting  its  shadow  before, 
and  began  chiefly  to  engross  the  attention  of  persons  in  polit- 
ical life.  Whig  candidates  for  electors  were  nominated  in 
November  of  this  year,  and  discussions  commenced  in  earnest. 
Mr.  Lincoln  who  was  deemed  one  of  the  strongest  champions 
of  the  cause  before  the  people,  was  repeatedly  called  on  to 
encounter  the  foremost  advocates  of  the  Democratic  party — 
what  no  man  in  Illinois,  it  was  now  manifest,  could  do  more 
successfully. 

For  the  fourth  time  in  succession,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected 
to  the  Legislature  in  1840 — the  last  election  to  that  position 
which  he  would  consent  to  accept  from  his  strongly  attached 
constituents  of  Sangamon  county.  In  this  Legislature,  like 
all  previous  ones  in  which  he  had  served,  the  Democrats 
had  a  majority  in  both  branches,  and  the  responsibility  of  all 
legislation  was  with  them.  It  was  at  this  session  that,  to  over- 
rule a  decision  unacceptable  to  Democrats,  and  for  political 
and  personal  reasons  of  common  notoriety  in  Illinois,  the 
judicial  system  of  the  State  was  changed,  at  the  instigation 
of  Douglas,  against  the  judgment  of  many  leading  Dem- 
ocrats, and  five  new  judges,  of  whom  Mr.  Douglas  was  one, 
were  added  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State.  This  is  now 
generally  felt  to  be  a  measure  conferring  little  credit  upon 
those  concerned  in  concocting  the  scheme,  and  was  never 
heartily  approved  by  the  people. 

There  was  but  one  session  during  the  two  years  for  which 
this  Legislature  was  chosen.  Mr.  Lincoln,  as  in  the  last,  waa 
the  acknowledged  Whig  leader,  and  the  candidate  of  his  party 
for  Speaker.  First  elected  at  twenty-five,  he  had  continued 
in  office  without  interruption  so  long  as  his  inclination  allowed, 
and  until,  by  his  uniform  courtesy  and  kindness  of  manners, 


LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  61 

his  marked  ability,  aud  his  straight-forward  integrity,  he  had 
won  an  enviable  repute  throughout  the  State,  and  was  vir- 
tually, when  but  a  little  past  thirty,  placed  at  the  head  of  his 
party  in  Illinois. 

Begun  in   comparative   obscurity,  and  without  any  adven- 
titious   aids   in    its   progress,    this    period    of  his    life,   at   its 
termination,   had  brought    him    to   a  position  where   he  was 
secure  in  the  confidence  of  the  people,  and  prepared,  in  due 
time,  to  enter  upon  a  more  enlarged  and  brilliant  career,  as 
a  national  statesman.     His  fame   as  a  close  and  convincins: 
debater  was  established.     His  native  talent  as  an  orator  had 
at   once   been   demonstrated   and   disciplined.     His    zeal    and 
earnestness  in  behalf  of  a  party  whose  principles  he  believed 
to  be  right,  had  rallied  strong  troops  of  political  friends  about 
him,  while  his  unfeigned  modesty  and   his  unpretending  and 
simple  bearing,  in  marked  contrast  with  that  of  so  many  impe- 
rious leaders,  had  won  him  general  and  lasting  esteem.     He 
preferred  no  claim  as  a  partizan,  and  showed  no  overweening 
anxiety  to  advance  himself,  but  was  always  a  disinterested  and 
generous  co-worker  with  his  associates,  only  ready  to  accept 
the  post  of  honor  and  of  responsibility,  when  it  was  clearly 
their  will,  and  satisfactory  to  the  people  whose  interests  were 
involved.     At  the  close  of  this  period,  with  scarcely  any  con- 
sciousness of  the  fact  himself,  and  with  no  noisy  demonstra- 
tions or  flashy  ostentation  in  his  behalf  from  his  friends,  he 
was  really  one  of  the  foremost  political  men  in  the  State.     A* 
keen  observer  might  even  then  have  predicted  a  great  future 
for  the  "  Sangamon  Chief,"  as  people  have  been  wont  to  call 
him ;    and  only  such  an  observer,  perhaps,  would  then   have 
adequately  estimated   his   real   power  as  a  natural  orator,  a 
sagacious  statesman,  and  a  gallant  tribune  of  the  people. 

I 


62  LIFE    OP    AiniAHAM    LINCOLN. 


CHAPTEE  YI. 

HIS   SETTLEMENT   AT   SPRINGFIELD   AND   HIS   MAR- 
RIAGE.—1837-42. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  Law  Studies. — His  Perseverance  under  Adverse  Circum- 
stances.— Licensed  to  Practice  in  1836. — His  Progress  in  his  Pro- 
fession.— His  Qualities  as  an  Advocate. — A  Romantic  and  Exciting 
Incident  in  his  Practice. — A  Reminiscence  of  his  Early  Life. — He 
Renders  a  Material  Service  to  the  Family  of  an  Old  Friend. — Secures 
an  Acquittal  in  a  Murder  Case,  in  Spite  of  a  Strong  Popular  Preju- 
dice Unjustly  E.^cited  Against  the  Prisoner. — An  Affecting  Scene. — 
Mr.  Lincoln  Removes  to  Springfield  in  1837. — Devotes  Himself  to  his 
Profession,  Giving  up  Political  Life. — His  Marriage. — The  Family  of 
Mrs.  Lincoln. — Fortunate  Domestic  Relations. — His  Children  and  their 
Education. — Denominational  Tendencies. — Four  Years"  Retirement. 

During   the   time   of  his   service  in  the  Lecfislature,  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  busily  engaged  in  mastering  the  profession  of 
law.     This  he  was,  indeed,  compelled  to  do  somewhat  at  inter- 
vals, and  with  many  disadvantages,  from  the  necessity  he  was 
under  to  support  himself  meanwhile  by  his  own   labor,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  attention  he  was  compelled  to  give  to  politics, 
by  the  position  he  had  accepted.     Nothing,  however,  could  pre- 
vent his  consummating  his  purpose.    He  completed  his  prelim- 
inary studies,  and  was  licensed  to  practice  in  1836.     His  repu- 
tation was  now  such  that  he  found  a  good  amount  of  business, 
and   began   to  rise  to  the  front  rank  in  his  profession.     He 
was  a  most  effective  jury  advocate,  and  manifested   a  ready 
perception  and  a  sound  judgment  of  the  turning  legal  points 
of  a  case.     His  clear,  practical  sense,  and  his  skill  infhomely 
or  humorous  illustration,  were   noticeable  traits  in  his  argu- 
ments.    The  graces   and   the   cold  artificialities  of  a  polished 
rhetoric,  he  certainly  had  not,  nor  did  he  aim  to  acquire  them. 
His  style  of  expression  and  the  cast  of  his  thought  were  his 
own,  having  all  the  native  force  of  a  genuine  originality. 


LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  63 

The  following  incident,  of  which  the  narration  is  believed  to  be 
substantially  accurate,  is  from  the  pen  of  one  who  professes  to 
write  from  personal  knowledge.  It  is  given  in  this  connection, 
as  at  once  illustrating  the  earlier  struggles  of  Mr.  Lincoln  in 
acquiring  his  profession,  the  character  of  his  forensic  efforts, 
and  the  generous  gratitude  and  disinterestedness  of  his  nature  : 

Having  chosen  the  law  as  his  future  calling,   he  devoted 
himself  assiduously  to  its  mastery,  contending  at  every  step 
with  adverse  Ibrtune.     During  this  period  of  study,  he  for  some 
time  found   a   home  under  the   hospitable  roof  of  one  Arm- 
strong, a  farmer,  who  lived  in  a    log    house  some  eight  miles 
from    the   village    of  Petersburg,  in    Menard    county.     Here, 
young  Lincoln  would  master  his  lessons  by  the  firelight  of  the 
cabin,  and   then  walk  to  town   for  the   purpose  of  recitation. 
This  man  Armstrong  was  himself  poor,  but  he  saw  the  genius 
struggling  in  the  young  student,  and  opened  to  him  his  rude 
home,  and  bid  him  welcome  to  his  coarse  fare.     How  Lincoln 
graduated  with  promise — how  he  has  more  than  fulfilled  that 
promise — how   honorably  he   acquitted   himself,  alike  on  the 
battle-field,  in  defending  our   border  settlements   against  the 
ravages  of  savage  foes,  and  in  the  halls  of  our  national  legis- 
lature, are  matters  of  history,  and   need   no  repetition    here. 
But  one  little  incident,  of  a  more   private  nature,  standing  as 
it  does  as  a  sort  of  sequel  to  some  things  already  alluded  to,  I 
deem  worthy  of  record.     Some'  few  years  since,  the  oldest  son 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  old  friend  Armstrong,  the  chief  support  of 
his  widowed   mother — the  good  old  man  having   some   time 
previously  passed  from  earth — was  arrested   on  the  charge  of 
murder.     A  young  man    had    been    killed  during    a    riotous 
melee,  in   the   night-time,  at  a  camp-meeting,  and  one  of  his 
associates  stated  that  the  death-wound  was  inflicted  by  young 
Armstrong.     A    preliminary  examination    was   gone    into,  at 
which  the  accuser  testified  so  positively,  that  there  seemed  no 
doubt  of  the  guilt  of  the  prisoner,  and  therefore  he  was  held 
for  trial.     As  is  too  often   the  case,  the  bloody  act  caused  an 
undue  degree  of  excitement  in  the  public  mind.     Every  im- 
proper incident  in  the  life  of  the  prisoner — each  act  which  bore 
the  least  semblance  of  rowdyism — each  schoolboy  quarrel — 
was  suddenly  remembered  and  magnified,  until  they  pictured 
him   as  a  fiend  of  the  most    horrid    hue.     As   these   rumors 
spread  abroad,  they  were  received  as  gospel  truth,  and  a  fever- 
ish desire  for  vengeance  seized  upon  the  infatuated  populace, 
while    only    prison-bars    pre\ented    a    horrible    death    at   the 


6-i  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

hands  of  a  mob.  The  events  were  heralded  in  tlie  news- 
papers, painted  in  highest  colors,  accompanied  by  rejoicing 
over  the  certainty  of  punishment  being  meted  out  to  the  guilty 
party.  The  prisoner,  overwhelmed  by  the  circumstances  in 
which  he  found  himself  placed,  fell  into  a  melancholy  condi- 
tion, bordering  upon  despair;  and  the  widowed  mother,  look- 
ing through  her  tears,  saw  no  cause  for  hope  from  earthly  aid. 

At  this  juncture,  the  widow  received  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Lincoln,  volunteering  his  services  in  an  effort  to  save  the 
youth  from  the  impending  stroke.  Gladly  was  his  aid  accepted, 
although  it  seemed  impossible  for  even  his  sagacity  to  prevail 
in  such  a  desperate  case ;  but  the  heart  of  the  attorney  was  in 
his  work,  and  he  set  about  it  with  a  will  that  knew  no  such 
word  as  fail.  Feeling  that  the  poisoned  condition  of  the  pub- 
lic mind  was  such  as  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  impannel- 
ing  an  impartial  jury  in  the  court  having  jurisdiction,  he 
procured  a  change  of  venue,  and  a  postponement  of  the  trial. 
He  then  went  studiously  to  work  unraveling  the  history  of  the 
case,  and  satisfied  himself  that  his  client  was  the  victim  of 
malice,  and  that  the  statements  of  the  accuser  were  a  tissue 
of  falsehoods.  When  the  trial  was  called  on,  the  prisoner, 
pale  and  emaciated,  with  hopelessness  written  on  every  feature, 
and  accompanied  by  his  half-hoping,  half-despairing  mother — 
whose  only  hope  was  in  a  mother's  belief  of  her  son's  inno- 
cence, in  the  justice  of  the  God  she  worshiped,  and  in  the 
noble  counsel,  who,  without  hope  of  fee  or  reward  upon  earth, 
had  undertaken  the  cause — took  his  seat  in  the  prisoner's  box, 
and  with  a  "  stony  firmness "' listened  to  the  reading  of  the 
indictment. 

Lincoln  sat  quietly  by,  while  the  largo  auditory  looked  on 
him  as  though  wondering  what  he  could  say  in  defense  of  one 
whose  guilt  they  regarded  as  certain.  The  examination  of  the 
witnesses  for  the  State  was  begun,  and  a  well-arranged  mass  of 
evidence,  circumstantial  and  positive,  was  introduced,  which 
seemed  to  impale  the  prisoner  beyond  the  possibility  of  extri- 
cation. The  counsel  for  the  defense  propounded  but  few 
C|uestions,  and  those  of  a  character  which  excited  no  uneasi- 
ness on  the  part  of  the  prosecutor — merely,  in  most  cases, 
requiring  the  main  Avitness  to  be  definite  as  to  time  and  place. 
When  the  evidence  of  the  prosecution  was  ended,  Lincoln 
introduced  a  few  witnesses  to  remove  some  erroneous  impres- 
sions in  regard  to  the  previous  character  of  his  client,  who, 
though  somewhat  rowdyish,  had  never  been  known  to  com- 
mit a  vicious  act ;  and  to  show  that  a  greater  degree  of  ill- 
feeling  existed  between  the  accuser  and  the  accused,  than  the 


LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  65 

accused  and  the  deceased.  The  prosecutor  felt  that  the  case 
was  a  clear  one,  and  his  opening  speech  was  brief  and  formal. 
Lincoln  arose,  while  a  deathly  silence  pervaded  the  vast  audi- 
ence, and  in  a  clear  but  moderate  tone  began  his  argument. 
Slowly  and  carefully  he  reviewed  the  testimony,  pointing  out 
the  hitherto  unobserved  discrepancies  in  the  statements  of  the 
principal  witness.  That  which  had  seemed  plain  and  plausible, 
he  made  to  appear  crooked  as  a  serpent's  path.  The  witness 
had  stated  that  the  affair  took  place  at  a  certain  hour  in  the 
evening,  and  that,  by  the  aid  of  the  brightly  shining  moon,  he 
saw  the  prisoner  inflict  the  death-blow  with  a  slung- shot.  Mr. 
Lincoln  showed,  that  at  the  hour  referred  to,  the  moon  had 
not  yet  appeared  above  the  horizon,  and  consequently  the 
whole  tale  was  a  fabrication.  An  almost  instantaneous  change 
seemed  to  have  been  wrought  in  the  minds  of  his  auditors,  and 
the  verdict  of  "  not  guilty  "  was  at  the  end  of  every  tongue. 
But  the  advocate  was  not  content  with  this  intellectual  achieve- 
ment. His  whole  being  had  for  months  been  bound  up  in 
this  work  of  gratitude  and  mercy,  and,  as  the  lava  of  the  over- 
charged crater  bursts  from  its  imprisonment,  so  great  thoughts 
and  burning  words  leaped  forth  from  the  soul  of  the  eloquent 
Lincoln.  He  drew  a  picture  of  the  perjurer,  so  horrid  and 
ghastly  that  the  accuser  could  sit  under  it  no  longer,  but 
reeled  and  staagered  from  the  court- room,  while  the  audience 
fancied  they  could  see  the  brand  upon  his  brow.  Then  in 
words  of  thrilling  pathos,  Lincoln  appealed  to  the  jurors,  as 
fathers  of  sons  who  might  become  fatherless,  and  as  husbands 
of  wives  who  might  be  widowed,  to  yield  to  no  previous  impres- 
sions, no  ill-founded  prejudice,  but  to  do  his  client  justice; 
and  as  he  alluded  to  the  debt  of  gratitude  which  he  owed  the 
boy's  sire,  tears  were  seen  to  fall  from  many  eyes  unused  to 
weep.  It  was  near  night  when  he  concluded  by  saying,  that 
if  justice  was  done — as  he  believed  it  would  be — before  the 
sun  should  set  it  would  shine  upon  his  client,  a  freeman.  The 
jury  retired,  and  the  court  adjourned  for  the  day.  Half  an 
hour  had  not  elapsed,  when,  as  the  officers  of  the  court  and  the 
volunteer  attorney  sat  at  the  tea-table  of  their  hotel,  a  messen- 
ger announced  that  the  jury  had  returned  to  their  seats.  All 
repaired  immediately  to  the  court-house,  and  while  the  prisoner 
was  being  brought  from  the  jail,  the  court-room  was  filled  to 
overflowing  with  citizens  of  the  town.  "When  the  prisoner  and 
his  mother  entered,  silence  reigned  as  completely  as  though 
the  house  were  empty.  The  foreman  of  the  jury,  in  answer  to 
the  usual  inquiry  from  the  court,  delivered  the  verdict  of  "  Not 
Guilty  I  "  Tlie  widow  dropped  into  the  arms  of  her  son,  who 
lifted  her  up,  and    told   her  to    look  upon   liim  as  before,  free 


66  LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

and  innocent.  Then,  with  the  words,  ''  Where  is  Mr.  Lin- 
coln ?  "  he  rushed  across  the  room  and  grasped  the  hand  of  his 
deliverer,  while  his  heart  was  too  full  for  utterance.  Lincoln 
turned  his  eyes  toward  the  west,  where  the  sun  still  linirered 
in  view,  and  then,  turning  to  the  youth,  said,  "  It  is  not  yet 
sundown,  and  you  are  free."  I  confess  that  my  cheeks  were 
not  wholly  unwet  by  tears,  and  I  turned  from  the  affecting 
scene.  As  I  cast  a  glance  behind,  I  saw  Abraham  Lincoln 
obeying  the  divine  injunction,  by  comforting  the  widowed  and 
the  fatherless. 

On  becoming  well  established  in  his  profession,  Mr.  Lincoln 
took  up  his  permanent  residence  at  Springfield,  the  county 
«eat  of  Sangamon  county.  This  occurred  in  the  spring  imme- 
diately following  the  passage  of  the  act  removing  the  State 
Capitol  to  that  place,  but  more  than  two  years  before  it  was  to 
go  into  effect.  The  date  at  which  he  became  settled  in  Spring- 
field, which  has  ever  since  been  the  place  of  his  residence, 
was  April  15,  1837. 

For  several  years  after  this  removal,  Mr.  Lincoln  remained  a 
bachelor,  and  was  an  inmate  of  the  family  of  the  Hon.  William 
Butler,  the  present  Treasurer  of  the  State.  For  three  or  four 
years  he  continued  to  represent  his  county  in  the  Legislature, 
but  after  1840,  he  refused  further  public  service,  with  a  view 
to  the  exclusive  pursuit  of  his  profession,  the  highest  success 
in  which  he  could  not  hope  to  obtain  while  giving  so  much  of 
his  time,  as  had  been  hitherto  required  of  him,  to  political 
affairs. 

On  the  4th  of  November,  1842,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  married 
to  Miss  Mart  Todd,  daughter  of  the  Hon.  Robert  S.  Todd,  of 
Lexington,  Kentucky.  This  lady  is  one  of  four  sisters,  the 
eldest  of  whom  had  previously  married  the  Hon.  Ninian  W. 
Edwards,  and  settled  at  Springfield.  All  have  since  married, 
and  reside  in  the  same  town.  No  man  was  ever  more  for- 
tunate in  his  domestic  relations  than  Mr.  Lincoln  has  been  ; 
the  accomplished  manners  and  social  tastes  of  his  wife,  which 
make  her  a  general  favorite,  being  not  less  conspicuous  than 
her  devotion  to  her  family,  and  her  care  to  render  their  home 
cheerful  and  happy,  as  well  as  cordially  hospitable  to  all. 
They  have  three  children  —  boys ;  the  eldest  of  whom  is  in 


LIFE  OP   ARRAHAM   LINCOLN.  67 

his  seventeenth  year,  and  the  others  respectively  nine  and 
seven.  Another  boy,  the  second  child,  died  when  about  four 
years  old.  The  surviving  sons  have  been  well  trained,  and 
their  education  very  particularly  cared  for.  The  oldest  has 
been  for  some  time  past  fitting  for  college  at  Exeter  Academy, 
New  Hampshire,  and  enters  Harvard  University  the  present 
season. 

It  is  proper  to  add  here  that  Mrs.  Lincoln  is  a  Presbyterian 
by  education  and  profession  (two  of  her  sisters  are  Episcopa- 
lians), and  that  her  husband,  though  not  a  member,  is  a  liberal 
supporter  of  the  church  to  which  she  belongs.  It  should  fur- 
ther be  stated  that  the  Sunday-School,  and  other  benevolent 
enterprises  associated  with  these  church  relations,  find  in  him 
a  constant  friend. 

In  this  quiet  domestic  happiness,  and  in  the  active  practice 
of  his  profession,  with  its  round  of  ordinary  duties,  and  with  its 
exceptional  cases  of  a  more  general  public  interest,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln disappears  for  the  time  from  political  life.  Its  peculiar 
excitements,  indeed,  were  not  foreign  to  the  stirring  and 
adventurous  nature  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  his  by  inher- 
itance. Nor  could  the  people,  and  the  party  of  which  he  was 
so  commanding  a  leader,  long  consent  to  his  retirement.  Yet 
such  was  his  prudent  purpose  —  now  especially,  with  a  family 
to  care  for ;  and  to  this  he  adhered,  with  only  occasional 
exceptions,  until,  four  years  after  his  marriage,  he  was  elected 
to  Congress. 


68  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


CHAPTEH  YII. 

CANVASSES.  OF  1844  AND  1846. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  Devotion  to  Henry  Clay. — The  Presidential  Nomina- 
tions of  1844. — The  Campaign  in  Illinois. — Mr.  Lincoln  Makes  an 
Active  Canvass  for  Clay. — John  Calboun  the  leading  Polk  Elector. — 
The  Tariff  Issue  Thoroughly  Discussed. — Method  of  Conducting  the 
Canvass. — The  'Whigs  of  Illinois  in  a  Hopeless  Minority. — Mr. 
Lincoln's  Reputation  as  a  AVhig  Champion. — Renders  Efficient  Service 
in  Indiana. — Mr.  Clay's  Defeat  and  the  Consequences. — Mr.  Lincoln  a 
Candidate  for  Congressman  in  1846. — President  Polk's  Administra- 
tion.— Condition  of  the  Country. — Texas  Annexation,  the  Mexican 
'War  and  the  Tariff. — Political  Character  of  the  Springfield  District. — 
Mr.  Lincoln  Elected  by  an  Unprecedented  Majority. — His  Personal 
Popularity  Demonstrated. 

Mr.  Lincoln  had,  from  his  first  entrance  into  political  life,  , 
recognized  Henry  Clay  as  his  great  leader  and  instructor  in 
statesmanship.  His  reverence  and  attachment  for  the  great 
Kentuckian  had  been  unlimited  and  enthusiastic.  When,  there- 
fore, Mr.  Clay  had  been  nominated  by  acclamation  for  the  Presi- 
dency by  the  National  Whig  Convention,  held  at  Baltimore  on 
the  1st  of  May,  1844,  and  when  a  Democrat  of  the  most  offen- 
sive school  was  put  in  nomination  against  him,  Mr.  Lincoln 
yielded  to  the  demands  of  the  Whigs  of  Illinois,  and,  for  the 
first  time  breaking  over  the  restrictions  he  had  placed  upon 
himself  in  regard  to  the  exclusive  pursuit  of  his  profession,  he 
consented  to  take  a  leading  position  in  canvassing  the  State 
as  an  elector.  In  a  State  that  had  stood  unshaken  in  its  Dem- 
ocratic position,  while  so  many  others  had  been  revolutionized 
during  the  great  political  tempest  of  1840,  there  was,  of 
course,  no  hope  of  immediate  success.  It  was  deemed  an 
opportunity  not  to  be  lost,  however,  for  maintaining  and 
strengthening  the  Whig  organization,  and  a  spirited  canvass 
was  consequently  made. 


LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  69 

On  tho  Democratic  side,  John  Calhoun,  then  one  of  the 
strongest  and  most  popular  speakers  of  that  party,  and  in 
many  respects  quite  another  man  than  he  subsequently  became, 
held  the  laboring  oar  for  Mr.  Polk.  Mr.  Lincoln  traversed 
various  parts  of  the  State,  attracting  large  audiences  and  keep- 
ing their  fixed  attention  for  hours,  as  he  held  up  to  admiration 
the  character  and  doctrines  of  Henry  Clay,  and  contrasted  them 
with  those  of  his  Presidential  opponent.  On  the  tariff  question, 
which  was  the  chief  issue  in  Illinois  that  year,  he  was  particu- 
larly elaborate,  strongly  enforcing  the  great  principles  on  which 
the  protective  system,  as  maintained  by  Clay,  was  based.  He 
had  always  a  fund  of  anecdote  and  illustration,  with  which  to 
relieve  his  close  logical  disquisitions,  and  to  elucidate  and 
enforce  his  views  in  a  manner  perfectly  intelligible,  as  well  as 
pleasing  to  all  classes  of  hearers.  This  campaign,  so  barren 
in  immediate  results,  as  it  was  expected  to  be  in  Illinois,  was 
not  without  its  excellent  fruits,  ultimately,  to  the  party.  It 
had  also  the  eflect  of  establishing  Mr.  Lincoln's  reputation  as 
a  political  orator,  on  a  still  broader  and  more  permanent  foun- 
dation. From  this  time  forward  he  was  widely  known  as  one 
of  the  soundest  and  most  effective  of  Whig  champions  in  the 
West. 

After  doing  in  Illinois  all  that  could  have  been  required  of 
one  man,  had  this  arena  been  of  the  most  promising  descrip- 
tion, Mr.  Lincoln  crossed  the  Wabash,  at  the  desire  of  the 
people  of  his  former  State,  and  contributed  largely  toward 
turning  the  tide  of  battle  for  Clay  in  that  really  hopeful  field. 
Here  he  worked  most  eflBciently,  losing  no  opportunity  up  to 
the  very  eve  of  the  election.  In  Indiana,'  those  efforts  have 
not  been  forgotten,  but  will  be  freshly  called  to  mind,  at 
this  juncture,  by  great  numbers  of  Old  Whigs  in  Southern 
Indiana. 

If  any  event,  more  heartily  than  another,  could  have  dis- 
couraged Mr.  Lincoln  from  again  participating  in  political 
affairs,  it  was  the  disastrous  result,  in  the  nation  at  large,  of 
this  canvass  of  1844.  He  felt  it  more  keenly  than  he  could 
have  done  if  it  were  a  mere  personal  reverse.  Mr.  Clay  was 
defeated,  contrary  to  the  ardent  hopes,  and  even  expectations 


70  LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

of  his  friends,  down  to  the  last  moment.  "With  the  causes  and  the 
consequences  which  followed  that  event,  the  impartial  historian, 
at  some  future  day,  can  more  candidly  and  philosophically 
epeak  than  any  of  those  who  shared  in  this  disappointment. 
That  the  election  of  Mr.  Polk  over  Mr.  Clay,  made  the  subse- 
quent political  history  of  our  country  far  different  from  what 
it  would  have  been  with  the  opposite  result,  all  will  concede. 

Two  years  later,  in  1846,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  induced  to  accept 
the  Whis;  nomination  for  Conprress  in  the  San2:amon  District. 
Tbn  annexation  of  Texas  had,  in  the  mean  time,  been  con- 
summated. The  Mexican  war  had  been  begun,  and  was  still 
in  progress.  The  Wliig  tariff  of  1842  had  just  been  repealed. 
This  latter  event  had  been  accomplished  in  the  Senate  by  the 
casting  vote  of  Mr.  Dallas,  the  Vice  President,  and  with  the 
official  approval  of  Mr.  Polk,  the  President,  both  of  whom  had 
been  elected  by  the  aid  of  Pennsylvania,  and  had  carried  the 
vote  of  that  State  solely  by  being  passed  off  upon  the  people 
as  favoring  the  maintenance  of  the  tariff  which  they  thus 
destroyed. 

The  Springfield  district  had  given  Mr.  Clay  a  majority  of 
914  in  1844,  on  the  most  thorough  canvass.  It  gave  Mr.  Lin- 
coln a  majority  of  1,511,  which  was  entirely  unprecedented 
and  has  been  unequaled  by  that  given  there  for  any  opposition 
candidate,  for  any  office  since.  The  nearest  approach  was  in 
1848,  when  Gen.  Taylor,  on  a  much  fuller  vote  than  that  of 
1846,  and  receiving  the  votes  of  numerous  returned  Mexican 
volunteers,  of  Democratic  faith,  and  who  had  served  under 
him  in  Mexico,  obtained  a  majority  of  1,501.  In  the  same 
year  (1848)  Mr.  Logan,  the  popular  Whig  candidate,  was 
beaten  by  Col.  Thomas  L.  Harris,  Democrat,  by  106  majority. 
There  was  no  good  reason  to  doubt,  in  advance,  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
would  have  been  elected  by  a  handsome  majority,  had  he  con- 
sented to  run  for  another  term,  nor  has  it  been  questionable, 
since  the  result  became  known,  that  the  strong  personal 
popularity  of  Mr.  Lincoln  would  have  saved  the  district.  It 
was  redeemed  by  Richard  Yates  in  1850,  who  carried  his 
election  by  less  than  half  the  majority  (754)  which  Mr.  Lin- 
coln had  received  ia  1846.     The  district,  since  its  reconstruc- 


LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  71 

tion,  following  the  census  of  1850,  has  been  Democratic. 
Under  all  the  circumstances,  therefore,  the  vote  for  ]\ir.  Lin- 
coln was  a  remarkable  one,  showing  that  he  possessed  a  rare 
degree  of  strength  with  the  people.  His  earnest  sincerity  of 
manner  always  strongly  impressed  those  whom  he  addressed. 
They  knew  him  to  be  a  man  of  strong  moral  convictions.  An 
opponent  intended  a  sneer  at  this  trait  (of  which  he  him- 
self was  never  suspected),  when  he  called  Mr.  Lincoln 
"conscientious." 

There  was  a  universal  confidence  in  his  honest  integrity, 
such  as  has  been  rarely  extended  to  men  so  prominent  in 
political  life.  The  longer  he  was  tried  as  a  public  servant,  the 
more  his  constituents  became  attached  to  him.  A  popularity 
thus  thoroughly  grounded  is  not  to  be  destroyed  by  the  breezes 
of  momentary  passion  or  prejudice,  or  materially  affected  by 
any  idle  fickleness  of  the  populace. 


72  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


CHAPTEH  VIII. 

MR.    LINCOLN   IN   CONGRESS. — 1847-49. 

The  Thirtieth  Congress — Its  Political  Character — The  Democracy 
in  a  Minoritj'  in  the  House. — Robert  C.  Winthrop  Elected  Speaker. — 
Distinguished  Members  in  both  Houses. — Mr.  Lincoln  takes  his  Seat 
as  a  Member  of  the  House,  and  Mr.  Douglas  for  the  first  time  as  a 
Member  of  the  Senate,  at  the  same  Session. — Mr.  Lincoln's  Conf^res- 
sional  Record,  that  of  a  Clay  and  Webster  Whig. — The  Mexican  War. — 
Mr.  Lincoln's  Views  on  the  Subject. — Misrepresentations. — Not  an 
Available  Issue  for  Mr.  Lincoln's  Opponents. — His  Resolutions  of 
Inquiry  in  regard  to  the  Origin  of  the  War. — Jlr.  Richardson's  Reso- 
lutions Indorsing  the  Administration. — Mr.  Hudson's  Resolutions  for 
an  Immediate  Discontinuance  of  the  War. — Voted  Against  by  Mr. 
Lincoln. — Resolutions  of  Thanks  to  Gen.  Taylor. — Mr.  Henley's 
Amendment,  and  Mr.  Ashmun's  Addition  thereto. — Resolutions 
Adopted  without  Amendment, — Mr.  Lincoln's  First  Speech  in  Con- 
gress, on  the  Mexican  War. — Mr.  Lincoln  on  Internal  Improvements. — 
A  Characteristic  Campaign  Speech — Mr.  Lincoln  on  the  Nomination 
of  Gen.  Taylor;  the  Veto  Power;  National  Issues;  President  and 
People;  the  Wilraot  Proviso;  Platforms;  Democratic  Sympathy  for 
Clay  ;  Military  Heroes  and  Exploits  ;  Cass  a  Progressive  ;  E.xtra  Pay  ; 
the  Whigs  and  the  Mexican  War ;  Democratic  Divisions. — Close  of  the 
Session. — Mr.  Lincoln  on  the  Stump. — Gen.  Taylor's  Election. — Second 
Session  of  the  Thirtieth  Congress. — Slavery  in  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia.— The  Public  Lands. — Mr.  Lincoln  as  a  Congressman. — He  Retires 
to  Private  Life. 

Mr.  Lincoln  took  his  seat  in  tlie  National  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives on  the  6th  day  of  December,  1847,  the  date  of  the 
opening  of  the  Thirtieth  Congress.  In  many  respects  this 
Congress  was  a  memorable  one.  That  which  preceded,  elected 
at  the  same  time  Mr.  Polk  was  chosen  to  the  Presidency,  had 
been  strongly  Democratic  in  both  branches.  The  policy  of  the 
Administration,  however,  had  been  such,  during  the  first  two 
years  of  its  existence,  that  a  great  popular  reaction  had  followed. 


ilFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  73 

The  present  House  contained  but  one  hundred  and  ten  Demo- 
crats, while  the  remaining  one  hundred  a'nd  eighteen,  with  the 
exception  of  a  single  Native  American  from  Philadelphia,  were 
nearly  all  Whigs,  the  balance  being  "  Free-Soil  men,"  who 
niostl}'  co-operated  with  them.  Of  these,  only  Messrs.  Giddings, 
Tuck  and  Palfrey  refused  to  vote  for  the  Hon.  Kobert  C. 
Winthrop  for  Speaker,  who  was  elected  on  the  third  ballot. 

Among  the  members  of  the  House,  on  the  Whig  side,  were 
John  Quincy  Adams  (who  died  during  the  first  session,  and 
was  succeeded  by  Horace  Mann),  and  George  Ashraun  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, Washington  Hunt  of  New  York,  Jacob  Collamer 
and  George  P.  Marsh  of  Vermont,  Truman  Smith  of  Connecti- 
cut, Joseph  R.  Ingersoll  and  James  Pollock  of  Pennsylvania, 
John  M.  Botts  and  William  L.  Goggin  of  Virginia,  Alexander 
H.  Stephens,  Robert  Toombs  and  Thomas  Butler  King  of 
Georgia,  Henry  W.  Hilliard  of  Alabama,  Samuel  F.  Vinton 
and  Robert  C.  Schenck  of  Ohio,  John  B.  Thompson  and 
Charles  S.  Morehead  of  Kentucky,  Caleb  B.  Smith  and  Richard 
W.  Thompson  of  Indiana,  and  Meredith  P.  Gentry  of  Tennes- 
see. On  the  Democratic  side,  there  were  David  Wilmot  of 
Pennsylvania,  Robert  M.  McLane  of  Maryland,  James  Mc- 
Dowell and  Richard  K.  Meade  of  Virginia,  R.  Barnwell  Rhett 
of  South  Carolina,  Howell  Cobb  of  Georgia,  Albert  G.  Brown 
and  Jacob  Thompson  of  Mississippi,  Linn  Boyd  of  Kentucky, 
Andrew  Johnson,  George  W.  Jones  and  Frederick  P.  Stanton 
of  Tennessee,  James  S.  Greene  and  John  S.  Phelps  of  Mis- 
souri, and  Kinsley  S.  Bingham  of  Michigan.  Illinois  had 
seven  representatives,  of  whom  Mr.  Lincoln  was  the  only 
Whic  His  Democratic  colleasrues  were  John  A.  McClernand, 
Orlando  B.  Ficklin,  William  A.  Richardson,  Robert  Smith, 
Thomas  J.  Turner  and  John  Wentworth. 

At  this  session,  Stephen  A.  Douglas  took  liis  seat  in  the 
Senate,  for  the  first  time,  having  been  elected  the  previous 
winter.  In  that  body  there  were  bxit  twenty-two  Opposition 
Senators,  against  thirty-six  Democrats,  Among  the  former 
were  Daniel  Webster,  Wm.  L.  Dayton,  S.  S.  Phelps,  John  M. 
Clayton,  Reverdy  Johnson,  Thomas  Corwin,  John  M.  Berrien, 
and  John  Bell.  On  the  Democratic  side  were  John  C.  Cal- 
7     ■ 


74  LIFE    OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

houn,  Thomas  H.  Benton,  Daniel  S.  Dickinson,  Simon  Came- 
ron, Hannibal  Hamlin,  Sam  Houston,  R.  M.  T.  Hunter  and 
William  R.  King. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  comparatively  quite  a  young  man  when  he 
entered  the  House,  yet  he  was  early  recognized  as  one  of  the 
foremost  of  the  Western  men  on  the  floor.  His  Congressional 
record,  throughout,  is  that  of  a  Whig  of  those  days,  his  votes 
on  all  leading  national  subjects,  being  invariably  what  those  of 
Clay,  Webster  or  Corwin  would  have  been,  had  they  occupied 
his  place.  One  of  the  most  prominent  subjects  of  considera- 
tion before  the  Thirtieth  Congress,  very  naturally,  was  the 
then  existing  war  with  Mexico.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  one  of  those 
who  believed  the  Administration  had  not  pi'operly  managed  its 
affairs  with  Mexico  at  the  outset,  and  who,  while  voting  sup- 
plies and  for  suitably  rewarding  our  gallant  soldiers  in  that  war, 
were  unwilling  to  be  forced,  by  any  trick  of  the  supporters  of 
the  Administration,  into  an  unqualified  indorsement  of  its 
course  in  this  affair,  from  beginning  to  end.  In  this  attitude, 
Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  stand  alone.  Such  was  the  position  of 
Whig  members  in  both  Houses,  without  exception.  Yet  his 
course  was  unscrupulously  misrepresented,  during  the  cam- 
paign of  1858,  and  not  improbably  will  be  again  during  the 
present  canvass.  That  many  men  who  now  support  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, approved  the  President's  course  in  regard  to  the  Mexican 
War,  as  well  in  its  inception  as  in  its  management  from  firs'" 
to  last,  is  not  improbable.  But  that  all  those  who,  at  that  time 
were  induced  by  their  party  relations,  to  sustain  the  Adminis- 
tration, at  heart  approved  the  method  in  which  hostilities  were 
precipitated,  or  felt  satisfied  that  the  most  commendable  mo- 
tives actiiated  the  Government  in  its  course  toward  Mexico,  is 
certainly  not  true.  This  is  not  an  issue  that  the  present  Dem- 
ocratic party  need  be  anxious  to  resuscitate.  Still  less  will  the 
friends  of  Mr.  Lincoln  be  reluctant  to  have  his  record  on  this 
question  scrutinized  to  the  fullest  extent. 

Early  in  the  session,  after  listening  to  a  long  homily  on  the 
subject  from  the  President,  in  his  annual  message,  in  which 
the  gauntlet  was  defiantly  thrown  down  before  the  Opposition 
members,  and  after  his  colleague,  Mr.  Richardson,  had  pro- 


LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  75 

posed  an  unqualified  indorsement  of  the  President's  views, 
Mr.  Lincoln  (December  22.  1847)  introduced  a  series  of  res- 
olutions of  inquiry  in  regard  to  the  origin  of  the  war.  They 
affirmed  nothing,  but  called  for  definite  official  information, 
such  as,  if  conclusively  furnished  in  detail,  and  found  to 
accord  with  the  general  asseverations  of  Mr.  Polk's  messages, 
would  have  set  him  and  his  administration  entirely  right 
before  the  country.  Either  such  information  was  accessible, 
or  the  repeated  statements  of  the  President  on  this  subject 
■were  groundless,  and  his  allegations  mere  pretenses.  If  the 
Democratic  party  was  in  the  right,  it  had  not  the  least  occa- 
sion to  complain  of  this  procedure,  if  pressed  to  a  vote.  Mr. 
Lincoln's  preamble  and  resolutions  (copied  from  the  Congress- 
ional Glohc,  first  session,  thirtieth  Congress,  page  64)  were  in 
the  following  words : 

"Whereas,  The  President  of  the  United  States,  in  his  mes- 
sage of  May  11,  1846,  has  declared  that  "  the  Mexican  Gov- 
ernment not  only  refused  to  receive  him  [the  envoy  of  the 
United  States],  or  listen  to  his  propositions,  but,  after  a  long 
continued  series  of  menaces,  has  at  last  invaded  our  territory^ 
and  shed  the  blood  of  our  fellow-citizens  on  our  own  soil:  " 

And  again,  in  his  message  of  December  8, 1846,  that  "  We 
had  ample  cause  of  war  against  Mexico  long  before  the  break- 
ing out  of  hostilities  ;  but  even  then  we  forbore  to  take  redress 
into  our  own  hands  until  Mexico  herself  became  the  ago-res- 
sor,  by  invading  our  soil  in  hostile  array,  and  shedding  the 
blood  of  our  citizens  :  " 

And  yet  again,  in  his  message  of  December  7,  1847,  that 
"  The  Mexican  Government  refused  even  to  hear  the  terms  of 
adjustment  which  he  [our  minister  of  peace]  was  authorized 
to  propose,  and  finally,  under  wholly  unjustifiable  pretexts, 
involved  the  two  countries  in  war,  by  invading  the  territory 
of  the  State  of  Texas,  striking  the  first  blow,  and  sLedding 
the  blood  of  our  citizens  on  our  own  soil :  "  and, 

Whereas,  This  House  is  desirous  to  obtain  a  full  knowl- 
edge of  all  the  facts  which  go  to  establish  whether  the  partic- 
ular spot  on  which  the  blood  of  our  citizens  was  so  shed  was 
or  was  not  at  that  time  ^^  our  own  soil:  "  therefore. 

Resolved  hy  the  House  of  Kepresenkttives,  That  the  President 
of  the  United  States  bf^  respectfully  requested  to  inform  this 
House — 

Ist.  Whether  the  spot  on  which  the  blood  of  our  citizens 


76  LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

was  shed,  as  in  his  messages  declared,  was  or  was  not  within 
the  territory  of  Spain,  at  least  after  the  treaty  of  1819,  until 
the  Mexican  revolution. 

2d.  Whether  that  spot  is  or  is  not  within  the  territory  which 
was  wrested  from  Spain  by  the  revolutionary  Government  of 
Mexico. 

3d.  Whether  that  spot  is  or  is  not  within  a  settlement  of 
people,  which  settlement  has  existed  ever  since  long  before  the 
Texas  revolution,  and  until  its  inhabitants  fled  before  the 
approach  of  the  United  States  army. 

4th.  Whether  that  settlement  is  or  is  not  isolated  from  any 
and  all  other  settlements  by  the  Gulf  and  the  Rio  Grande  on 
the  south  and  west,  and  by  wide  uninhabited  regions  on  the 
north  and  east. 

5th.  Whether  the  people  of  that  settlement,  or  a  majority 
of  them,  or  any  of  them,  have  ever  submitted  themselves  to 
the  government  or  laws  of  Texas  or  of  the  United  States,  by 
consent  or  by  compulsion,  either  by  accepting  office,  or  voting 
at  elections,  or  paying  tax,  or  serving  on  juries,  or  having 
process  served  upon  them,  or  in  any  other  way. 

6th.  Whether  the  people  of  that  settlement  did  or  did  not 
flee  from  the  approach  of  the  United  States  army,  leaving 
unprotected  their  homes  and  their  growing  crops,  before  the 
blood  was  shed,  as  in  the  messages  stated  ;  and  whether  the 
first  blood,  so  shed,  was  or  was  not  shed  within  the  inclosure 
of  one  of  the  people  who  had  thus  fled  from  it. 

7th.  Whether  our  citizens,  whose  blood  was  shed,  as  in  his 
messages  declared,  were  or  were  not,  at  that  time,  armed  offi- 
cers and  soldiers,  sent  into  that  settlement  by  the  military 
order  of  the  President,  through  the  Secretary  of  W^ar. 

8th.  Whether  the  military  force  of  the  United  States  was 
or  was  not  so  sent  into  that  settlement  after  General  Taylor 
had  more  than  once  intimated  to  the  War  Department  that, 
in  his  opinion,  no  such  movement  was  necessary  to  the  defense 
or  protection  of  Texas. 

These  resolutions  were  laid  over,  under  the  rule.  Many 
other  propositions,  embracing  the  substance  of  this  question 
were  also  brought  before  the  House,  besides  Mr.  Richardson's, 
which  ultimately  failed.  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  call  up  his 
resolutions,  nor  were  they  ever  acted  upon  ;  but  he  commented 
on  them  in  a  speech  subsequently  made. 

On  the  third  day  of  January,  1848,  Mr.  Hudson,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, offered  a  resolution,  directing  the  Committee  on  Mil- 


I 


LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  77 

itary  Affairs  "  to  inquire  into  the  expediency  of  requesting 
the  President  of  the  United  States  to  withdraw  to  the  east 
bank  of  the  Rio  Grande  our  armies  now  in  Mexico,  and  to 
propose  to  the  Mexican  Government  forthwith  a  treaty  of 
peace  on  the  following  basis,  namely  :  That  we  relinquish  all 
claim  to  indemnity  for  the  expenses  of  the  war,  and  that  the 
boundary  between  the  "United  States  and  Mexico  shall  bo 
established  at  or  near  the  desert  between  the  Nueces  and  the 
llio  Grande ;  that  Mexico  shall  be  held  to  pay  all  just  claims 
due  to  our  citizens  at  the  commencement  of  the  war,  and  that 
a  convention  shall  be  entered  into  by  the  two  nations  to  pro- 
vide for  the  liquidation  of  those  claims  and  the  mode  of 
payment." 

This  was  a  test  question  on  abandoning  the  war,  without 
any  material  result  accomplished.  Mr.  Lincoln  voted  with 
the  minority,  in  favor  of  laying  this  resolution  on  the  table. 
On  the  question  of  adopting  the  resolution,  which  was 
defeated,  yet  voted  for  by  John  Quincy  Adams,  Ashmun, 
Vinton,  and  many  others  on  the  ^yhig  side,  Mr.  Lincoln 
voted  in  the  negative.  (^See  Congressional  Globe,  first  session, 
oOth  Congress,  J>c(ge  94.) 

On  the  same  day,  almost  immediately  following  the  above 
action,  joint  resolutions  of  thanks  to  General  Zachary  Taylor 
and  our  troops  in  Mexico,  having  been  offered,  an  amendment 
was  proposed  by  Mr.  Henley,  a  Democratic  member  from 
Indiana,  as  an  adroit  political  maneuver,  by  which  it  was 
designed  to  secure  an  indorsement  of  the  war  from  the  Whigs, 
or  a  refusal  of  the  vote  of  thanks.  He  moved  the  addition  of 
this  clause  to  the  resolutions :  "  engaged,  as  they  were,  in 
defending  the  rights  and  honor  of  the  nation."  As  an  amend- 
ment to  the  amendment,  in  order  to  defeat  its  underhand  pur- 
pose, Mr.  Ashmun  promptly  moved  to  add  the  words :  "  In  a 
war  unnecessarily  and  unconstitutionally  begun  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States."  Mr.  Lincoln  voted  for  Ashmun'3 
amendment  to  Henley's  amendment.  So  also  did  Messrs. 
Clingman  and  Barringer,  of  North  Carolina  ;  A.  H.  Stephens, 
Robert  Toombs  and  Thomas  Butler  King,  of  Georgia  ;  Gog- 
gin,  of  Virginia;  Gentry,  of  Tennessee;    and  a  majority  of 


78  LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LliNX'OLN. 

all  those  voting.  [See  page  95,  as  above.]  The  object 
intended,  of  defeating  the  brilliant  movement  of  Mr.  Henley, 
was  accomplished.  The  amendment,  as  amended,  was  not 
carried.  The  resolutions,  in  their  original  shape,  were  subse- 
quently reintroduced  by  Mr.  Stephens,  and  adopted  without 
opposition.      (^Congressional  G lobe ^  page  304.) 

On  the  12th  day  of  January,  1848,  Mr.  Lincoln  expressed 
his  views,  frankly  and  fully,  in  regard  to  the  war  with  Mexico, 
It  was  the  first  speech  made  by  Mr.  Lincoln  in  Congress,  and 
is  subjoined  entire,  as  reported  in  "the  Appendix  to  the  Con- 
gressional Glohe  [1st  session,  oOth  Congress,  page  93]  : 

MR.  LINCOLN'S  SPEECH  ON  THE  MEXICAN  WAR. 
[In   Committee  of  the  Whole  Bouse,  Januanj  12,  18i8.) 

Mr.  Lincoln  addressed  the  Committee  as  follows : 
Mr.  Chairman  :  Some,  if  not  all,  of  the  gentlemen  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Hovise,  who  have  addressed  the  Committee 
within  the  last  two  days,  have  spoken  rather  complainingly,  if 
I  have  rightly  understood  them,  of  the  vote  given  a  week  or 
ten  days  ago,  declaring  that  the  war  with  Mexico  was  unneces- 
sarily and  unconstitutionally  commenced  by  the  President.  I 
admit  that  such  a  vote  should  not  be  given  in  mere  party 
wantonness,  and  that  the  one  given  is  justly  censurable,  if  it 
have  no  other  or  better  foundation.  I  am  one  of  those  who 
joined  in  that  vote ;  and  did  so  under  my  best  impression  of 
the  truth  of  the  case.  How  I  got  this  impression,  and  how  it 
may  possibly  be  removed,  I  will  now  try  to  show.  When  the 
war  began,  it  was  my  opinion  that  all  those  who,  because  of 
knowing  too  little,  or  because  of  knowing  too  mucJi,  could  not 
conscientiously  approve  the  conduct  of  the  President  (in  the 
beginning  of  it),  should,  nevertheless,  as  good  citizens  and 
patriots,  remain  silent  on  that  point,  at  least  till  the  war  should 
be  ended.  Some  leading  Democrats,  including  ex-President 
Van  Buren,  have  taken  this  same  view,  as  I  understand  them  ; 
and  I  adhered  to  it,  and  acted  upon  it,  until  since  I  took  my 
seat  here;  and  I  think  I  should  still  adhere  to  it,  were  it  not 
that  the  President  and  his  friends  will  not  allow  it  to  be  so. 
Besides,  the  continual  effort  of  the  President  to  argue  every 
silent  vote  given  for  supplies  into  an  indorsement  of  the  jus- 
tice and  wisdom  of  his  conduct ;  besides  that  singularly  can- 
did paragraph  in  his  late  message,  in  which  he  tells  us  that 
Congress,  with  great  unanimity  (only  two  in  the  Senate  and 
fourteen  in  the  House  dissenting)  had  declared  that  "  by  the 


LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  79 

act  of  the  Republic  of  Mexico  a  state  of  war  exists  between 
that  Government  and  the  United  States;"  when  the  same  jour- 
nals that  informed  him  of  this,  also  informed  him  that,  when 
that  declaration  stood  disconnected  from  the  question  of  sup- 
plies, sixty-seven  in  the  House,  and  not  fourteen,  merely,  voted 
against  it ;  besides  this  open  attempt  to  prove  by  telling  the 
truth,  what  he  could  not  prove  by  telling  the  ichole  truth, 
demanding  of  all  who  will  not  submit  to  be  misrepresented,  in 
justice  to  themselves,  to  speak  out;  besides  all  this,  one  of 
my  colleagues  [Mr.  Richardson],  at  a  very  early  day  in  the 
session,  brought  in  a  set  of  resolutions,  expressly  indorsing 
the  original  justice  of  the  war  on  the  part  of  the  President. 
Upon  these  resolutions,  when  they  shall  be  put  on  their  pas- 
sage, I  shall  be  conipdlrd  to  vote ;  so  that  I  can  not  be  silent 
if  I  would.  Seeing  this,  I  went  about  preparing  myself  to 
give  the  vote  understandingly,  when  it  should  come.  I  care- 
fully examined  the  Pi'esident's  messages,  to  ascertain  what  he 
himself  had  said  and  proved  upon  the  point.  The  result  of 
this  examination  was  to  make  the  impression,  that,  taking  for 
true  all  the  President  states  as  facts,  he  falls  far  short  of  prov- 
ing his  justification  ;  and  that  the  President  would  have  gone 
further  with  his  proof,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  small  matter 
that  the  truth  would  not  permit  him.  Under  the  impression 
thus  made  I  gave  the  vote  before  mentioned.  I  propose  now 
to  give,  concisely,  the  process  of  the  examination  I  made,  and 
how  I  reached  the  conclusion  I  did. 

The  President,  in  his  first  message  of  May,  1846,  declares 
that  the  soil  was  ours  on  which  hostilities  were  commenced  by 
Mexico ;  and  he  repeats  that  declaration,  almost  in  the  same 
languaEce,  in  each  successive  annual  message — thus  showins;  that 
he  esteems  that  point  a  highly  essential  one.  In  the  importance 
of  that  point  I  entirely  agree  with  the  President.  To  my 
judgment,  it  is  the  very  point  upon  which  he  should  be  justi- 
fied or  condemned.  In  his  message  of  December,  1846,  it 
seems  to  have  occurred  to  him,  as  i.^  certainly  true,  that  title, 
ownership  to  soil,  or  anything  else,  is  not  a  simple  fact,  but  is 
a  conclusion  following  one  or  more  simple  facts ;  and  that  it 
was  incumbent  upon  him  to  present  the  facts  from  which  he 
concluded  the  soil  was  ours  on  which  the  first  blood  of  the 
war  was  shed. 

Accordingly,  a  little  below  the  middle  of  page  twelve,  in 
the  message  last  referred  to,  he  enters  upon  that  task  ;  form- 
ing an  issue  and  introducing  testimony,  extending  the  whole 
to  a  little  below  the  middle  of  page  fourteen.  Now,  I  propose 
to  try  to  show  that  the  whole  of  this — issue  and  evidence— is, 
from  beginning  to  end,  the  sheerest  deception.     The  issue,  as 


80  LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

ho  presents  it.  is  in  these  words:  "Bat  tliere  are  those  who, 
conceding  all  this  to  be  true,  assume  the  ground  that  the  true 
western  boundary  of  Texas  is  the  Nueces,  instead  of  the  Rio 
Grande ;  and  that,  therefore,  in  marching  our  army  to  the 
east  bank  of  the  latter  river,  we  passed  the  Texan  line,  and 
invaded  the  territory  of  Mexico."  Now,  this  issue  is  made 
up  of  two  afhrmatives  and  no  negative.  The  main  deception 
of  it  is,  that  it  assumes  as  true  that  one  river  or  the  ether  is 
necessarily  the  boundary,  and  cheats  the  superficial  thinker 
entirely  out  of  the  idea  that  j^osdhlij  the  boundary  is  some- 
where beticecn  the  two,  and  not  actually  at  either*.  A  further 
deception  is,  that  it  will  let  in  evidence  vihXch.  a  true  issue  would 
exclude.  A  true  issue  made  by  the  President  would  be  about 
as  follows  :  '•  I  say  the  soil  ivns  ours  on  which  the  first  blood 
was  shed ;  there  are  those  who  say  it  was  not." 

I  now  proceed  to  examine  the  President's  evidence,  as  appli- 
cable to  such  an  issue.  When  that  evidence  is  analyzed,  it  is 
all  included  in  the  following  propositions : 

1.  That  the  Rio  Grande  was  the  western  boundary  of  Lou- 
isiana, as  we  purchased  it  of  France  in  1803. 

2.  That  the  Republic  of  Texas  always  claimed  the  Rio  Grande 
as  her  western  boundary. 

3.  That,  by  various  acts,  she  had  claimed  it  on  paper. 

4.  That  Santa  Anna,  in  his  treaty  with  Texas,  recognized 
the  Rio  Grande  as  her  boundary. 

5.  That  Texas  hefore^  and  the  United  States  after  annexa- 
tion, had  exercised  jurisdiction  beyond  the  Nueces,  between  the 
two  rivers. 

6.  That  our  Congress  understood  the  boundary  of  Texas  to 
extend  beyond  the  Nueces. 

Now  for  each  of  these  in  its  turn  : 

His  first  item  is,  that  the  Rio  Grande  was  the  western 
boundary  of  Louisiana,  as  we  purchased  it  of  France  in  1803; 
and,  seeming  to  expect  this  to  be  disputed,  he  argues  over  the 
amount  of  nearly  a  page  to  prove  it  true  ;  at  the  end  of  which, 
he  lets  us  know  that,  by  the  treaty  of  1819,  we  sold  to  Spain 
the  whole  country,  from  the  Rio  Grande  eastward  to  the  Sa- 
bine. Now,  admitting  for  the  present,  that  the  Rio  Grande 
was  the  boundary  of  Louisiana,  what,  under  heaven,  had  that 
to  do  with  the  present  boundary  between  us  and  Mexico? 
How,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  line  that  once  divided  your  land  from 
mine  can  still  be  the  boundary  between  us  after  I  have  sold 
my  land  to  you,  is,  to  me,  beyond  all  comprehension.  And 
how  any  man,  with  an  honest  purpose  only  of  proving  the 
truth,  could  ever  have  thouf/ht  of  introducing  such  a  fact  to 
prove  such  an  issue,  is  equally  incomprehensible.     The  out- 


LIFK    OF    ABBAHAM    LINCOLN.  81 

rage  upon  common  rvjlit.^  of  seizinji  as  our  own  what  we  have 
once  sold,  merely  because  it  tons  ours  before  we  sold  it,  is  only 
equaled  by  the  outrage  on  common  sense  of  any  attempt  to 
justify  it.    _         ^ 

The  President's  next  piece  of  evidence  is,  that  "  The  Repub- 
lic of  Texas  always  claimed  this  river  (llio  Grande)  as  her 
western  boundary."  That  is  not  true,  in  fact.  Texas  has 
claimed  it,  but  she  has  not  always  claimed  it.  There  is,  at 
least,  one  distinguished  exception.  Her  State  Constitution — 
the  public's  most  solemn  and  well-considered  act;  that  which 
may,  without  impropriety,  be  called  her  last  will  and  testa- 
ment, revoking  all  others — makes  no  such  claim.  But  sup- 
pose she  had  always  claimed  it.  Has  not  Mexico  always 
claimed  the  contrary?  So  that  there  is  but  claim  against  claim, 
leaving  nothing  proved  until  we  get  back  of  the  claims,  and 
find  which  has  the  better  foundation. 

Though  not  in  the  order  in  which  the  President  presents  his 
evidence,  I  now  consider  that  class  of  his  statements,  which 
are,  in  substance,  nothing  more  than  that  Texas  has  by  various 
acts  of  her  Convention  and  Congress,  claime<l  the  Rio  Grande 
as  her  boundary — on  paper.  I  mean  here  what  he  says  about 
the  fixing  of  the  Rio  Grande  as  her  boundary,  in  her  old  Con- 
stitution (not  her  State  Constitution),  about  forming  congres- 
sional districts,  counties,  etc.  Now,  all  this  is  but  naked 
claim;  and  what  I  have  already  said  about  claims  is  strictly 
applicable  to  this.  If  I  should  claim  your  land  by  word  of 
mouth,  that  certainly  would  not  make  it  mine ;  and  if  I 
were  to  claim  it  by  a  deed  which  I  had  made  myself,  and  with 
which  you  had  nothing  to  do,  the  claim  would  he  quite  the 
same  in  substance,  or  rather  in  utter  nothingness. 

I  next  consider  the  President's  statement  that  Santa  Anna, 
in  his  freafi/  with  Texas,  recognized  the  Rio  Grande  as  the 
western  boundary  of  Texas.  Besides  the  position  so  often 
taken  that  Santa  Anna,  while  a  prisoner  of  war — a  captive — 
coidd  not  bind  Mexico  by  a  treaty,  which  I  deem  conclusive ; 
besides  this,  I  wish  to  say  something  in  relation  to  this  treaty, 
so  called  by  the  President,  with  Santa  Anna.  If  any  man 
would  like  to  be  amused  by  a  sight  at  that  litde  thing,  which 
the  President  calls  by  that  bi(/  name,  he  can  have  it  by  turning 
to  Niles'  Register,  volume  50,  page  336.  And  if  any  one 
should  suppose  that  Niles'  Register  is  a  curious  repository  of 
so  mighty  a  document  as  a  solemn  treaty  between  nations,  I 
can  only  say  that  I  learned,  to  a  tolerable  degree  of  certainty, 
by  inquiry  at  the  State  Department,  that  the  President  him- 
self never  saw  it  anywhere  else.  By  the  way,  I  believe  I 
should  not  err  if  I  were  to  declare,  that  during  the  first  ten 
8 


82  LIFE    OF    AUIIAIIAM    MNCOLN. 

years  of  the  existence  of  that  document,  it  was  never  by  any- 
body called  a  treaty ;  that  it  was  never  so  called  till  the  Presi- 
dent, in  his  extremity,  attempted,  by  so  callino-  it,  to  wring 
something  from  it  in  justification  of  himself  in  connection 
with  the  Mexican  war.  It  has  none  of  the  distinguishing- 
features  of  a  treaty.  It  does  not  call  itself  a  treaty.  Santa 
Anna  does  not  therein  assume  to  bind  Mexico;  he  assumes 
only  to  act  as  President,  Commander-in-chief  of  the  Mexican 
army  and  navy ;  stipulates  that  the  then  present  hostilities 
should  cease,  and  that  he  would  not  himself  take  up  arms,  nor 
■injiuence  the  Mexican  people  to  take  up  arms,  against  Texas, 
during  the  existence  of  the  war  of  independence.  He  did  not 
recognize  the  independence  of  Texas  ;  he  did  not  assume  to 
put  an  end  to  the  war,  but  clearly  indicated  his  expectation 
of  its  continuance ;  he  did  not  say  one  word  about  boundary, 
and  most  probably  never  thought  of  it.  It  is  stipulated  therein 
that  the  Mexican  forces  should  evacuate  the  territory  of  Texas, 
passing  to  the  other  side  of  the  Rio  Grande ;  and  in  another 
article  it  is  stipulated,  that  to  prevent  collisions  between  the 
armies,  the  Texan  army  should  not  approach  nearer  than 
within  five  leagues — of  ichat  is  not  said — but  clearly,  from  the 
object  stated,  it  is  of  the  Rio  Grande.  Now,  if  this  is  a  treaty 
recognizing  the  Rio  Grande  as  the  boundary  of  Texas,  it  con- 
tains the  singular  feature  of  stipulating  that  Texas  shall  not 
go  within  five  leagues  of  her  own  boundary. 

Next  comes  the  evidence  of  Texas  before  annexation,  and 
the  United  States  afterward,  exercising  jurisdiction  beyond 
the  Nueces,  and  between  the  two  rivers.  This  actual  exercise 
of  jurisdiction  is  the  very  class  or  quality  of  evidence  we  want. 
It  is  excellent  so  far  as  it  goes  ;  but  does  it  go  far  enough? 
He  tells  us  it  went  heyond  the  Nueces,  but  he  does  not  tell  us 
it  went  to  the  Rio  Grande.  He  tells  us  jurisdiction  was  exer- 
cised between  the  two  rivers,  but  he  does  not  tell  us  it  was 
exercised  over  all  the  territory  between  them.  Some  simple- 
minded  people  think  it  possible  to  cross  one  river  and  go  beyond 
it,  without  going  all  the  way  to  the  next;  that  jurisdiction 
may  be  exercised  between  two  rivers  without  covering  oil  the 
country  between  them.  I  know  a  man,  not  very  unlike 
myself,  who  exercises  jurisdiction  over  a  piece  of  land  between 
the  Wabash  and  the  Mississippi;  and  yet  so  far  is  this  from 
being  all  there  is  between  those  rivers,  that  it  is  just  one 
hundred  and  fifty-two  feet  long  by  fifty  wide,  and  no  part  of 
it  much  within  a  hundred  miles  of  either.  He  has  a  neigh- 
bor between  him  and  the  Mississippi — that  is,  just  across  the 
street,  in  that  direction — whom,  I  am  sure,  he  could  neither 
•persuade  nox force  to  give  up  his  habitation;  but  which,  never- 


LIFE     OF    ABRAHAM     LINCOLN.  83 

theless,  he  could  certainly  annex,  if  it  were  to  be  done,  by 
merely  standing  on  his  own  side  of  the  street  and  claiming 
it,  or  even  sitting  down  and  writing  a  deed  for  it. 

But  next,  the  President  tells  us,  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  understood  the  State  of  Texas  they  admitted  into  the 
Union  to  extend  heyond  the  Nueces.  Well,  I  suppose  they 
did — I  certainly  so  understand  it — but  how  far  beyond? 
That  Congress  did  not  understand  it  to  extend  clear  to  the 
Rio  Grande,  is  quite  certain  by  the  fact  of  their  joint  resolu- 
tions for  admission  expressly  leaving  all  questions  of  boundary 
to  future  adjustment.  And,  it  may  be  added,  that  Texas 
herself  is  proved  to  have  had  the  same  understanding  of  it 
that  our  Congress  had,  by  the  fact  of  the  exact  conformity  of 
her  new  Constitution  to  those  resolutions. 

I  am  now  through  the  whole  of  the  President's  evidence; 
and  it  is  a  singular  fact,  that  if  any  one  should  declare  the 
President  sent  the  army  into  the  midst  of  a  settlement  of 
Mexican  people,  who  had  never  submitted,  by  consent  or  by 
force  to  the  authority  of  Texas  or  of  the  United  States,  and 
that  there,  and  tlierehy,  the  first  blood  of  the  war  was  shed, 
there  is  not  one  word  in  all  the  President  has  said  which 
would  either  admit  or  deny  the  declaration.  In  this  strange 
omission  chiefly  consists  the  deception  of  the  President's 
evidence — an  omission  which,  it  does  seem  to  me,  could 
scarcely  have  occurred  but  by  design.  My  way  of  living 
leads  me  to  be  about  the  courts  of  justice ;  and  there  I  have 
some  times  seen  a  good  lawyer,  struggling  for  his  client's 
neck,  in  a  desperate  case,  employing  every  artifice  to  work 
round,  befog,  and  cover  up  with  many  words  some  position 
pressed  upon  him  by  the  prosecution,  which  he  dared  not 
admit,  and  yet  could  not  deny.  Party  bias  may  help  to  make 
it  appear  so ;  but,  with  all  the  allowance  I  can  make  for  such 
bias,  it  still  does  appear  to  me  that  just  such,  and  from  just 
such  necessity,  are  the  President's  struggles  in  this  case. 

Some  time  after  my  colleague  (Mr.  Richardson)  intro- 
duced the  resolutions  I  have  mentioned,  I  introduced  a 
preamble,  resolution,  and  interrogatories,  intended  to  draw 
the  President  out,  if  possible,  on  this  hitherto  untrodden 
ground.  To  show  their  relevancy,  I  propose  to  state  my 
understanding  of  the  true  rule  for  ascertaining  the  boundary 
between  Texas  and  Mexico.  It  is,  that  wherever  Texas  was 
exercising  jurisdiction  was  hers ;  "and  wherever  Mexico  was 
exercising  jurisdiction  was  hers;  and  that  whatever  separated 
the  actual  exercise  of  jurisdiction  of  the  one  from  that  of  the 
other,  was  the  true  boundary  between  ihem.  If,  as  is  proba- 
bly true,  Texas  was  exercising  jurisdiction  along  the  western 


S4  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

bank  of  the  Nueces,  and  Mexico  was  exercising  it  along  the 
eastern  bank   of  the  Kio  Grande,  then  neither  river  was  the 
boundary,  but  the  uninhabited  country  between  the  two  was. 
The  extent  of  our   territory  in  that  region  depended  not  on 
SiXi-y  treaty -fixed  boundary  (for   no  treaty  had  attempted  it), 
but  on  revolution.     Any  people  anywhere,  being  inclined  and 
having  the  power,  have  the  right  to  rise  up  and  shake  off  the 
existing  government,  and  form  a  new   one    that   suits  them 
better.     This  is  a  most  valuable,  a  most  sacred  right — a  right 
which,  we  hope  and  believe,  is  to  liberate  the  world.     Nor  is 
this  right  confiucd  to  eases  in  which  the  whole  people  of  an 
existing  government  may  choose  to  exercise  it.     Any  portion 
of  such  people  that  can  may   revolutionize,   and  make  their 
own  of  so  much  of  the  territory  as  they  inhabit.     More  than 
this,  a  majority  of  any  portion  of  such  people   may  revolu- 
tionize, putting  down  a  minority^  intermingled  with,   or  near 
about  them,  who  may  oppose  their  movements.    Such  minority 
was  precisely  the  case  of  the  Tories  of  our   own  Revolution. 
It  is  a  quality  of  revolutions  not  to  go  by  old  lines,  or  old 
laws ;  but  to  break  up  both,  and  make  new  ones.     As  to  the 
country  now  in  question,   we  bought  it  of  France   in  1803, 
and  sold  it  to  Spain  in  1819,  according   to   the  President's 
statement.     After  this,  all  Mexico,  including  Texas,  revolu- 
tionized against  Spain  ;  and  still  later,  Texas  revolutionized 
against  Mexico.     In  my  view,  just  so  far  as  she  carried  her 
revolution,  by  obtaining  the  actual,  willing  or  unwilling  sub- 
mission of  the  people,  so  far  the   country  was  hers,  and  no 
further. 

Now,  sir,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  the  very  best  evi- 
dence as  to  whether  Texas  had  actually  carried  her  revolution 
to  the  place  where  the  hostilities  of  the  present  war  com- 
menced, let  the  President  answer  the  interrogatories  I  proposed, 
as  before  mentioned,  or  some  other  similar  ones.  Let  him 
answer  fully,  fairly  and  candidly.  Let  him  answer  with /aci's, 
and  not  with  arguments.  Let  him  remember  he  sits  where 
Washington  sat ;  and,  so  remembering,  let  him  answer  as 
Washington  would  answer.  As  a  nation  should  not,  and  the 
Almighty  loiU  not,  be  evaded,  so  let  him  attempt  no  evasion, 
no  equivocation.  And  if,  so  answering,  he  can  show  that  the 
soil  was  ours  where  the  first  blood  of  the  war  was  shed — that 
it  was  not  within  an  inhabited  country,  or,  if  within  such,  that 
the  inhabitants  had  submitted  themselves  to  the  civil  authority 
of  Texas,  or  of  the  United  States,  and  that  the  same  is  true  of 
the  site  of  Fort  Brown— then  I  am  with  him  for  his  justifica- 
tion. In  that  case,  I  shall  be  most  happy  to  reverse  the  vote 
I  gave  the  other  day.     I  have  a  selfish  motive  for  desiring  that 


LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LTNCOLN.  85 

the  President  may  do  this ;  I  expect  to  give  some  votes,  in 
connection  with  the  war,  which,  without  his  so  doing,  will  be  of 
doubtful  propriety,  in  my  own  judgment,  but  which  will  be  free 
from  the  doubt,  if  he  does  so.     But  if  he  can  not  or  vnll  not  do 
this — if,  on  any  pretense,  or  no  pretense,  he  shall  refuse  or  omit 
it — then  I  shall  be  fully  convinced,  of  what  I  more  than  sus- 
pect already,  that  he  is  deeply  conscious  of  being  in  the  wrong; 
that  he  feels  the  blood  of  this  war,  like  the  blood  of  Abel,  is 
crying  to  heaven  against  him ;  that  he  ordered  General  Tay- 
lor into  the  midst  of  a  peaceful  Mexican  settlement,  purposely 
to  bring  on  a  war  ;  that  originally  having  some  strong  motive — 
what  I  will  not  stop  now  to  give  my  opinion  concerning — to 
involve   the  two  countries   in  a  war,  and   trusting  to  escape 
scrutiny  by  fixing  the  public  gaze  upon  the  exceeding  bright- 
ness of  military  glory — that  attractive  rainbow  that  rises  in 
showers  of  blood — that  serpent's  eye  that  charms  to  destroy — 
he  plunged  into  it,  and  has  swept  on  and  on,  till,  disappointed 
in  his  calculation   of  the  ease  with  which  Mexico  might  be 
subdued,  he   now  finds  himself  he   knows  not  where.     How 
like  the  half  insane  mumbling  of  a  fever  dream  is  the  whole 
war  part  of  the  late  message  !     At  one  time  telling  us  that 
Mexico  has  nothing  whatever  that  we  can  get  but  territory ;  at 
another,  showing  us  how  we  can  support  the  war  by  levying 
contributions  on  Mexico.     At  one  time  urging  the   national 
honor,   the  security  of  the  future,  the  prevention  of  foreign 
interference,  and  even  the  good  of  Mexico  herself,   as  among 
the  objects  of  the  war ;  at  another,  telling  us  that,  "  to  reject 
indemnity  by  refusing  to  accept  a  cession  of  territory,  would 
be  to  abandon  all  our  just  demands,  and  to  wage  the  war,  bear- 
ing all  its  expenses,  loWiout  a  purpose  oi' dcjinite  object."     So, 
then,  the  national  honor,  security  of  the  future,   and  every- 
thing   but   territorial  indemnity,  may    be    considered  the  no 
purposes  and  inclcfimte  objects  of  the  war  !     But  having  it  now 
settled  that  territorial   indemnity  is  the  only  object,  we  are 
urged  to  seize,  by  legislation  here,  all  that  he  was  content  to 
take  a  few  months  ago,  and  the  whole  province  of  Lower  Cal- 
ifornia to  boot,  and  to  still  carry  on  the  war — to  take  all  wo 
are  fighting  for,  and  Hill  fight  on.     Again,  the  President  is 
resolved,    under    all    circumstances,    to    have    full    territorial 
indemnity  for  the  expenses  of  the  war  ;  but  he  forgets  to  tell 
us  how  wc  are  to  get  the  excess  after  those  expenses  shall  have 
surpassed   the  value   of  the  icliole  of  the  Mexican  territory. 
So,  again,  he  insists  that  the  separate  national  existence  of 
Mexico  shall   be  maintained  ;  but  he  does  not  tell  us  how  this 
can  be  done  after  we  shall  have  taken  all  her  territory.     Lest 


86  LIFE   or   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

the  question  I  here  suggest  be  considered  speculative  merely, 
let  me  be  indulged  a  moment  in  trying  to  show  they  are  not. 

The  war  has  gone  on  some  twenty  months  ;  for  the  expenses 
of  which,  together  with  an  inconsiderable  old  score,  the  Presi- 
dent now  claims  about  one-half  of  the  Mexican  territory,  and 
that  by  far  the  better  half,  so  far  as  concerns  our  ability  to 
make  any  thing  out  of  it.  It  is  comparatively  uninhabited  ; 
so  that  we  could  establish  land  offices  in  it,  and  raise  some 
money  in  that  way.  But  the  other  half  is  already  inhabited, 
as  I  understand  it,  tolerably  densely  for  the  nature  of  the 
country  ;  and  all  its  lands,  or  all  that  are  valuable,  already 
appropriated  as  private  property.  How,  then,  are  we  to  make 
any  thing  out  of  these  lands  with  this  incumbrance  on  them, 
or  how  remove  the  incumbrance  ?  I  suppose  no  one  will  say 
we  should  kill  the  people,  or  drive  them  out,  or  make  slaves  of 
them,  or  even  confiscate  their  property?  How,  then,  can  we 
make  much  out  of  this  part  of  the  territory  ?  If  the  prose- 
cution of  the  war  has,  in  expenses,  already  equaled  the  better 
half  of  the  country,  how  long  its  future  prosecution  will  be  in 
equaling  the  less  valuable  half  is  not  a  speculative  but  n  prac- 
tical question,  pressing  closely  upon  us;  and  yet  it  is  a  ques- 
tion which  the  President  seems  never  to  have  thought  of. 

As  to  the  mode  of  terminating  the  war  and  securing  peace, 
the  President  is  equally  wandering  and  indefinite.  First,  it 
is  to  be  done  by  a  more  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war  in  the 
vital  parts  of  the  enemy's  country ;  and,  after  apparently 
talking  himself  tired  on  this  point,  the  President  drops  down 
into  a  half  despairing  tone,  and  tells  us,  that  "  with  a  people 
distracted  and  divided  by  contending  factions,  and  a  govern- 
ment subject  to  constant  changes,  by  successive  revolutions, 
the  continued  success  of  our  arms  tnay  fail  to  obtain  a  satis- 
factory peace.y  Then  he  suggests  the  propriety  of  wheedling 
the  Mexican  people  to  desert  the  counsels  of  their  own  lead- 
ers, and,  trusting  in  our  protection,  to  set  up  a  government 
from  which  we  can  secure  a  satisfactory  peace,  telling  us  that 
^Hliis  tnay  become  the  only  mode  of  obtaining  such  a peace^ 
But  soon  he  falls  into  doubt  of  this  too,  and  then  drops  back 
on  to  the  already  half-abandoned  ground  of  "  more  vigorous 
prosecution."  All  this  shows  that  the  President  is  in  no  wise 
satisfied  with  his  own  positions.  First,  he  takes  up  one,  and, 
in  attempting  to  argue  us  into  it,  he  argues  himself  out  of  it ; 
then  seizes  another,  and  goes  through  the  same  process  ;  and 
then,  confused  at  being  able  to  think  of  nothing  new,  he 
snatches  up  the  old  one  again,  which  he  has  some  time  before 
cast  off.     His   mind,   tasked   beyond   its   power,   is  running 


LIKE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  87 

hither  and  thither,  like  some  tortured  creature  on  a  burning 
surface,  finding  no  position  on  whicli  it  can  settle  down  and 
be  at  ease. 

Again,  it  is  a  singular  omission  in  this  message,  that  it 
nowhere  intimates  lohen  the  President  expects  the  war  to  ter- 
minate. At  its  beginning,  Greneral  Scott  was,  by  this  same 
President,  driven  into  disfavor,  if  not  disgrace,  for  intimating 
that  peace  could  not  be  conquered  in  less  than  three  or  four 
months.  But  now  at  the  end  of  about  twenty  months,  during 
which  time  our  arms  have  given  us  the  most  splendid  suc- 
cesses— every  department,  and  every  part,  land  and  water, 
officers  and  privates,  regulars  and  volunteers,  doing  all  that 
men  could  do,  and  hundreds  of  things  which  it  had  ever  before 
been  thought  that  men  could  not  do ;  after  all  this,  this  same 
President  gives  us  a  long  message  without  showing  us  that,  as 
to  the  end,  he  has  himself  even  an  imaginary  conception.  As 
I  have  before  said,  he  knows  not  where  he  is.  He  is  a  bewild- 
ered, confounded,  and  miserably-perplexed  man.  Grod  grant 
he  may  be  able  to  show  that  there  is  not  something  about  his 
conscience  more  painful  than  all  his  mental  perplexity. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  an  industrious  member  of  the  Committee 
on  Post-offices  and  Post-roads,  and  thoroughly  acquainted 
himself  with  the  details  of  that  prominent  branch  of  the  public 
service.  On  the  5th  of  January,  1848,  he  made  a  clear  and 
pertinent  speech  in  regard  to  a  question  of  temporary  interest 
which  then  excited  considerable  attention,  the  "Great  Southern 
Mail  "  contract.  Some  of  the  Virginia  Whig  members  had 
taken  issue  with  the  Postmaster  General,  in  regard  to  his  action 
on  this  question,  and  there  were  indications  of  an  attempt  to 
give  a  partizan  turn  to  the  affair.  Mr.  Lincoln  sustained  the 
action  of  that  Democratic  official,  insisting  that  his  construc- 
tion of  the  law  in  this  instance,  which  was  the  more  econom- 
ical, was  also  the  more  correct  one.  It  is  unnecessary  to  enter 
into  the  details  of  the  case  here.  "We  subjoin  two  or  three 
paragraphs  from  the  speech,  which  was  purely  a  practical  one, 
for  the  purpose  of  showing  the  general  spirit  and  tenor  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  mode  of  dealing;  with  business  matters: 


o 


"  I  think  that  abundant  reasons  have  been  given  to  show 
that  the  construction  put  upon  the  law  by  the  Postmaster 
General  is  the  right  construction,  and  that  subsequent  acts  of 
Congress  have  confirmed  it.     I  have  already  said  that   the 


88  LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

grievance  complained  of  ought  to  be  remedied.  But  it  is  said 
that  the  sum  of  money  about  which  all  this  difficulty  has  arisen 
is  exceedingly  small — not  more  than  §2.700.  I  admit  it  is 
very  small ;  and  if  nothing  else  were  involved,  it  would  not  be 
worth  the  dispute.  But  there  is  a  principle  involved  ;  and  if 
we  once  yield  to  a  wrong  principle,  that  concession  will  be  the 
prolific  source  of  endless  mischief.  It  is  for  this  reason,  and 
not  for  the  sake  of  saving  $2,700,  that  I  am  unwilling  to  yield 
what  is  demanded.  If  I  had  no  apprehensions  that  the  ghost 
of  this  yielding  would  rise  and  appear  in  various  distant  places, 
I  would  say,  pay  the  money,  and  let  us  have  no  more  fuss 
about  it.  But  I  have  such  apprehensions.  I  do  believe,  that 
if  we  yield  this,  our  act  will  be  the  source  of  other  claims 
equally  unjust,  and  therefore  I  can  not  vote  to  make  the 
allowance." 

Mr.  L.  insisted  that  the  true  and  great  point  to  which  the 
attention  of  this  House  or  the  committee  should  be  directed 
was,  what  is  a  just  compensation  ?  Inasmuch  as  this  railroad 
and  steamboat  company  could  afford  greater  facilities  than  any 
other  line,  the  service  ought  to  be  done  upon  this  route ;  but 
it  ought  to  be  done  on  just  and  fair  principles.  If  it  could 
not  be  done  at  what  had  been  offered,  let  it  be  shown  that  a 
greater  amount  was  just.  But,  until  it  was  shown,  he  was 
opposed  to  increasing  it.  He  had  seen  many  things  in  the 
report  of  the  Postmaster  General  and  elsewhere  that  stood  out 
against  the  river  route.  Now,  the  daily  steamboat  transporta- 
tion between  Troy  and  New  York  was  performed  for  less  than 
one  hundred  dollars  per  mile.  This  company  was  dissatisfied 
with  two  hundred  and  twelve  or  two  hundred  and  thirteen 
dollars  per  mile.  It  had  not  been  shown,  and  he  thought  it 
could  not  be  shown  to  them  why  this  company  was  entitled  to 
more,  or  so  much  more,  than  the  other  received.  It  was  true, 
they  had  to  encounter  the  ice,  but  was  there  not  more  ice 
further  north  ?  There  might  possibly  be  shown  some  reason 
why  the  Virginia  line  should  have  more;  but  was  there  any 
reason  why  they  should  have  so  much  more  ?  Again,  the 
price  paid  between  Cincinnati  and  Louisville  for  daily  trans- 
portation was  not  two  hundred  and  thirteen  dollars  per  mile, 
or  one  hundred  dollars,  or  fifty ;  it  was  less  than  twenty-eight 
dollars  per  mile.  Now,  he  did  not  insist  that  there  might  not 
be  some  peculiar  reasons  connected  with  this  route  between 
this  city  and  Richmond  that  entitled  it  to  more  than  was  paid 
on  the  routes  between  Cincinnati  and  Louisville,  and  Troy  and 
New  York.  But,  if  there  were  reasons,  they  ought  to  be 
shown.  And  was  it  supposed  that  there  could  be  any,  or  so 
peculiar  reasons  as  to  justify  so  great  a  difference  in  compen- 


LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  89 

sation  as  was  claimed  by  this  company  ?  It  did  seem  that 
there  could  be  none. 

These  reasons  actuated  him  in  taking  the  position  he  had 
taken,  painfully  refusing  to  oblige  his  friend  from  Virginia, 
which  he  assured  the  gentleman  he  had  the  greatest  inclina- 
tion to  do. 

In  relation  to  the  report  of  the  committee,  let  him  state 
one  thing :  It  proposed  that  the  Postmaster  General  should 
again  oifer  this  company  what  he  had  already  offered  and  they 
had  refused.  It  was  for  the  reason  that  the  Postmaster  General, 
as  he  understood,  had  informed  them  that  he  was  not  himself 
going  to  renew  the  proposition.  The  committee  supposed,  at 
any  rate  he  (Mr.  L.)  supposed — that  as  soon  as  the  company 
should  know  that  they  could  get  what  he  had  offered  them, 
and  no  more — as  soon  as  all  hope  of  greater  compensation  was 
cut  off — that  instant  they  would  not  take  ten  thousand  dollars 
a  year  for  the  privilege  of  doing  it.  Whether  this  was  actually 
the  case  he  did  not  profess  positively  to  know ;  it  was  a  matter 
of  opinion,  but  he  firmly  believed  it.  In  proposing  to  offer 
them  the  contract  again,  as  he  had  already  said,  the  committee 
yielded  something,  viz.:  the  damage  that  the  Government  would 
have  to  pay  for  the  breaking  up  of  the  present  arrangement. 
He  was  willing  to  incur  that  damage  ;  some  other  gentlemen 
were  not;  they  were  further  away  from  the  position  which  his 
friend  from  Virginia  took.  He  was  willing  to  yield  something, 
but  could  not  consent  to  go  the  whole  length  with  the 
gentleman. 

The  subject  of  internal  improvements,  as  before  indicated, 
had  long  been  one  in  which  Mr.  Lincoln  had  taken  a  special 
interest.  In  the  Illinois  legislature,  he  had  favored  the  policy 
of  developing  the  resources  of  the  State  by  the  fostering  aid 
of  the  local  government,  in  so  far  as  he  might,  under  the  con- 
stant restraints  of  a  Democratic  majority.  The  great  River 
and  Harbor  Improvement  Convention,  held  at  Chicago,  not 
long  before  the  commencement  of  his  Congressional  life — and 
to  which  he  refers  in  his  subjoined  speech  on  this  policy — he 
had  participated  in,  as  one  of  its  most  active  and  earnest 
members.  A  brief,  fifteen-minute  speech  of  his- on  that  occa- 
sion, of  which  there  appears  to  be  no  report  extant,  is  still 
remembered  by  many  of  those  who  heard  it,  as  one  of  the 
most  eloquent  and  impressive  efforts  of  that  memorable  con- 
vention,  which  was  presided  over  by  the  Hon.  Edward  Bates, 


90  LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

of  St.  Louis.  Aside  from  the  celebrated  speect  of  the  latter, 
a  theme  of  constant  praise  from  that  day  to  the  present,  no 
more  eleetrifjing  address  was  made  before  the  convention  than 
that  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 

On  the  20th  day  of  June,  1848,  after  the  presidential  nom- 
ination of  Mr.  Cass,  whom  "  circumstances,"  it  will  be  re- 
membered, prevented  from  being  present  at  that  convention, 
Mr.  Lincoln  took  occasion  to  address  the  House  on  this  sub- 
ject. Below  is  his  speech  entire,  as  reported  in  the  Appendix 
to  the  Co7igressional  Globe  for  that  session  (p.  709). 

MR.  LINCOLN'S  SPEECH  ON  INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS. 
(In   Committee  of  the  Whole  Rouse,  June  20,  1848.) 

Mr.  Lincoln  said  : 

Mr.  Chairman  :  I  wish  at  all  times  in  no  way  to  practice 
any  fraud  upon  the  House  or  the  committee,  and  I  also  desire 
to  do  nothing  which  may  be  very  disagreeable  to  any  of  the 
members.  I  therefore  state,  in  advance,  that  my  object  in 
taking  the  floor  is  to  make  a  speech  on  the  general  subject  of 
internal  improvements  ;  and  if  I  am  out  of  order  in  doing  so, 
I  give  the  Chair  an  opportunity  of  so  deciding,  and  I  will  take 
my  seat. 

The  Chair. — I  will  not  undertake  to  anticipate  what  the 
gentleman  may  say  on  the  subject  of  internal  improvements. 
He  will,  therefore,  proceed  in  his  remarks,  and  if  any  question 
of  order  shall  be  made,  the  Chair  will  then  decide  it. 

Mr.  Lincoln. — At  an  early  day  of  this  session  the  Pres- 
ident sent  to  us  what  may  properly  be  termed  an  inter- 
nal improvement  veto  message.  The  late  Democratic  Conven- 
tion which  sat  at  Baltimore,  and  which  nominated  General 
Cass  for  the  Presidency,  adopted  a  set  of  resolutions,  now 
called  the  Democratic  platform,  among  which  is  one  in  these 
words  : 

"  That  the  Constitution  does  not  confer  upon  the  General 
Government  the  power  to  commence  and  carry  on  a  general 
system  of  internal  improvements." 

General  Cass,  in  his  letter  accepting  the  nomination,  holds 
this  language  : 

"  I  have  carefully  read  the  resolutions  of  the  Democratic 
National  Convention,  laying  down  the  platform  of  our  politi- 
cal faith,  and  I  adhere  to  them  as  firmly  as  I  approve  them 
cordially." 

These  things,   taken   together,   show  that  the  question  of 


LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  91 

internal  improvements  is  now  more  distinctly  made — has 
become  more  intense,  than  at  any  former  period.  It  can  no 
longer  be  avoided.  The  veto  message  and  the  Baltimore  res- 
olution I  understand  to  be,  in  substance,  the  same  thing  ;  the 
latter  being  the  more  general  statement,  of  which  the  former 
is  the  amplification — the  bill  of  particulars.  While  I  know 
there  are  many  Democrats,  on  this  floor  and  elsewhere,  who 
disapprove  that  message,  I  understand  that  all  who  shall  vote 
for  General  Cass  will  thereafter  be  considered  as  having 
approved  it,  as  having  indorsed  all  its  doctrines.  I  suppose  all, 
or  nearly  all,  the  Democrats  will  vote  for  him.  Many  of  them 
will  do  so,  not  because  they  like  his  position  on  this  question, 
but  because  they  prefer  him,  being  wrong  in  this,  to  another, 
whom  they  consider  further  wrong  on  other  questions.  In 
this  way  the  internal  improvement  Democrats  are  to  be,  by  a 
sort  of  forced  consent,  carried  over,  and  arrayed  against  them- 
selves on  this  measure  of  policy.  General  Cass,  once  elected, 
will  not  trouble  himself  to  make  a  Constitutional  argument, 
or,  perhaps,  any  argument  at  all,  when  he  shall  veto  a  river 
or  harbor  bill.  He  will  consider  it  a  sufficient  answer  to  all 
Democratic  murmurs,  to  point  to  Mr.  Polk's  message,  and  to 
the  "  Democratic  platform."  This  being  the  case,  the  ques- 
tion of  improvements  is  verging  to  a  final  crisis  ;  and  the 
friends  of  the  policy  must  now  battle,  and  battle  manfully,  or 
surrender  all.  In  this  view,  humble  as  I  am,  I  wish  to 
review,  and  contest  as  well  as  I  may,  the  general  positions  of 
this  veto  message.  When  I  say  general  positions,  I  mean  to 
exclude  from  consideration  so  much  as  relates  to  the  present 
embarrassed  state  of  the  Treasury,  in  consequence  of  the  Mex- 
ican war. 

Those  general  positions  are  :  That  internal  improvements 
ought  not  to  be  made  by  the  General  Government : 

1.  Because  they  would  overwhelm  the  treasury ; 

2.  Because,  while  their  hurdens  would  be  general,  their  hen- 
efits  would  be  local  and  partial,  involving  a,n  obnoxious  ine- 
quality ; 

3.  Because  they  would  be  unconstitutional  ; 

4.  Because  the  States  may  do  enough  by  the  levy  and  col- 
lection of  tunnage  duties  ;  or,  if  not, 

5.  That  the  Constitution  may  be  amended. 

"Do  nothing  at  all,  lest  you  do  something  wrong,"  is  the 
sum  of  these  positions — is  the  sum  of  this  message :  and  this, 
with  the  exception  of  what  is  said  about  Constitutionality, 
applying  as  forcibly  to  making  improvements  by  State  authority 
as  by  the  national  authority.  So  that  we  must  abandon  the 
improvements  of  the  country  altogether,  by  any  and  every 


92  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

authority,  or  we  must  resist  and  repudiate  the  doctrines  of  this 
message.     Let  us  attempt  the  latter. 

The  first  position  is,  that  a  system  of  internal  improvement 
would  overwhelm  the  treasury. 

That,  in  such  a  system,  there  is  a  tendency  to  undue  expan- 
sion, is  not  to  be  denied.  Such  tendency  is  founded  in  the 
nature  of  the  subject.  A  member  of  Congress  will  prefer 
voting  for  abill  which  contains  an  appropriation  for  his  district, 
to  voting  for  one  which  does  not;  and  when  a  bill  shall  be 
expanded  till  every  district  shall  be  provided  for,  that  it  will  be 
too  greatly  expanded  is  obvious.  But  is  this  any  more  true  in 
Congress  than  in  a  State  Legislature?  If  a  member  of  Con- 
gress must  have  an  appropriation  for  his  district,  so  a  member 
of  a  Legislature  must  have  one  for  his  county  ;  and  if  one  will 
overwhelm  the  national  treasury,  so  the  other  will  overwhelm 
the  State  treasury.  Go  where  we  will,  the  difficulty  is  the  same. 
Allow  it  to  drive  us  from  the  halls  of  Congress,  and  it  will  just 
as  easily  drive  us  from  the  State  Legislatures.  Let  us,  then, 
grapple  with  it,  and  test  its  strength.  Let  us,  judging  of  the 
future  by  the  past,  ascertain  whether  there  may  not  be,  in  the 
discretion  of  Congress,  a  sufficient  power  to  limit  and  restrain 
this  expansive  tendency  within  reasonable  and  proper  bounds. 
The  President  himself  values  the  evidence  of  the  past.  He 
tells  us  that  at  a  certain  point  of  our  history,  more  than  two 
hundred  millions  of  dollars  had  been  applied  for^  to  make 
improvements,  and  this  he  does  to  prove  that  the  treasury  would 
be  overwhelmed  by  such  a  system.  Why  did  he  not  tell  us 
how  much  was  granted?  Would  not  that  have  been  better 
evidence?  Let  us  turn  to  it,  and  see  what  it  proves.  In  the 
message,  the  President  tells  us  that  '' during  the  four  succeed- 
ing years,  embraced  by  the  administration  of  President  Ad- 
ams, the  power  not  only  to  appropriate  money,  but  to  apply  it, 
under  the  direction  and  authority  of  the  General  Government, 
as  well  to  the  construction  of  roads  as  to  the  improvement  of 
harbors  and  rivers,  was  fully  asserted  and  exercised." 

This,  then,  was  the  period  of  greatest  enormity.  These,  if 
any,  must  have  been  the  days  of  the  two  hundred  millions. 
And  how  much  do  you  suppose  was  really  expended  for  im- 
provements during  those  four  years  ?  Two  hundred  millions  ? 
One  hundred?  Fifty?  Ten?  Five?  No,  sir,  less  than  two 
millions.  As  shown  by  authentic  documents,  the  expenditures 
on  improvements  during  1825, 1826,  1827  and  1828,  amounted 
to  81,879,627  01.  These  four  years  were  the  period  of  Mr. 
Adams'  administration,  nearly,  and  substantially.  This  fact 
shows  that  when  the  power  to  make  improvements  was  "  fully 
asserted  and  exercised,"  the  Congresses  did  keep  within  tea- 


LIFE    OE    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  9^ 

sonable  limits  ;  and  wliat  has  been  done  it  seems  to  me,  can 
be  done  again. 

Now  fur  tbe  second  position  of  the  message,  namely,  that 
the  burdens  of  improvements  would  be  general,  while  their 
benffds  would  be  local  and  partial,  involving  an  obnoxious 
inequality.  That  there  is  some  degree  of  truth  in  this  posi- 
tion I  shall  not  deny.  No  commercial  object  of  Government 
patronage  can  be  so  exclusively  general,  as  not  to  be  of  some 
peculiar  local  advantage;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  nothing  is 
so  local  as  not  to  be  of  some  general  advantage.  The  navy, 
as  I  understand  it,  was  established,  and  is  maintained,  at  a 
great  annual  expense,  partly  to  be  ready  for  war,  when  war 
shall  come,  but  partly  also,  and  perhaps  chiefly,  for  the  pro- 
tection of  our  commerce  on  the  high  seas.  This  latter  object 
is,  for  all  I  can  see,  in  principle,  the  same  as  internal  improve- 
ments. The  driving  a  pirate  from  the  track  of  commerce  on 
the  broad  ocean,  and  the  removing  a  snag  from  its  more  nar- 
row path  in  the  Mississippi  river,  can  not,  I  think,  be  distin- 
guished in  principle.  Each  is  done  to  save  life  and  property, 
and  for  nothing  else.  The  navy,  then,  is  the  most  general  in 
its  benefits  of  all  this  class  of  objects;  and  yet  even  the  navy 
is  of  some  peculiar  advantage  to  Charleston,  Baltimore,  Phil- 
adelphia, New  York,  and  Boston,  beyond  what  it  is  to  the  inte- 
rior towns  of  Illinois.  The  next  most  general  object  I  can 
think  of,  would  be  improvements  on  the  Mississippi  river  and 
its  tributaries.  They  touch  thirteen  of  our  States — Pennsyl- 
vania, Virginia,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Mississippi,  Louisiana, 
Arkansas,  Missouri,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Ohio,  Wisconsin,  and 
Iowa.  Now,  I  suppose  it  will  not  be  denied,  that  these  thir- 
teen States  are  a  little  more  interested  in  improvements  on 
that  great  river  than  are  the  remaining  seventeen.  These 
instances  of  the  navy,  and  the  Mississippi  river,  show  clearly 
that  there  is  something  of  local  advantage  in  the  most  general 
objects.  But  the  converse  is  also  true.  Nothing  is  so  local 
as  not  to  be  of  some  general  benefit.  Take,  for  instance,  the 
Illinois  and  Michigan  canal.  Considered  apart  from  ita 
effects,  it  is  perfectly  local.  Every  inch  of  it  is  within  the 
State  of  Illinois.  That  canal  was  first  opened  for  business 
last  April.  In  a  very  few  days  we  were  all  gratified  to  learn, 
among  other  things,  that  sugar  had  been  carried  from  New 
Orleans,  through  the  canal,  to  Bufl'alo,  in  New  York.  This 
sugar  took  this  route,  doubtless,  because  it  was  cheaper  than 
the  old  route.  Supposing  the  benefit  in  the  reduction  of  the 
cost  of  carriage  to  be  shared  between  seller  and  buyer,  the 
result  is,  that  the  New  Orleans  merchant  sold  his  sugar  a  little 
dearer,  and  the  people  of  Buffalo  sweetened  their  coffee  a  little 


94  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

cheaper  than  before  ;  a  benefit  resultins^ yVo?n  the  canal,  not  to 
Illinois,  where  the  canal  js,  but  to  Louisiana  and  New  York, 
where  it  is  not.  In  other  transactions  Illinois  will,  of  course, 
have  her  share,  and  perhaps  the  larger  share  too,  in  the  bene- 
fits of  the  canal ;  but  the  instance  of  the  sugar  clearly  shows 
that  the  benefits  of  an  improvement  are  by  no  means  confined 
to  the  particular  locality  of  the  improvement  itself. 

The  just  conclusion  from  all  this  is,  that  if  the  nation 
refuse  to  make  improvements  of  the  more  general  kind, 
because  their  benefits  may  be  somewhat  local,  a  State  may,  for 
the  same  reason,  refuse  to  make  an  improvement  of  a  local 
kind,  because  its  benefits  may  be  somewhat  general.  A  State 
may  well  say  to  the  nation  :  "  If  you  will  do  nothing  for  me, 
I  will  do  nothing  for  you."  Thus  it  is  seen,  that  if  this 
argument  of  "  inequality  "  is  sufiicient  anywhere,  it  is  suffi- 
cient everywhere,  and  puts  an  end  to  improvements  altogether. 
I  hope  and  believe,  that  if  both  the  nation  and  the  States 
would,  in  good  faith,  in  their  respective  spheres,  do  what  they 
could  in  the  way  of  improvements,  what  of  inequality  might 
be  produced  in  one  place  might  be  compensated  in  another, 
and  that  the  sum  of  the  whole  might  not  be  very  unequal. 
But  suppose,  after  all,  there  should  be  some  degree  of  ine- 
quality :  inequality  is  certainly  never  to  be  embraced  for  its 
own  sake ;  but  is  every  good  thing  to  be  discarded  which  may 
be  inseparably  connected  with  some  degree  of  it?  If  so,  we 
must  discard  all  government.  This  Capitol  is  built  at  the 
public  expense,  for  the  public  benefit;  but  does  any  one  doubt 
that  it  is  of  some  peculiar  local  advantage  to  the  property 
holders  and  business  people  of  Washington?  Shall  we 
remove  it  for  this  reason?  And  if  so,  where  shall  we  set  it 
down,  and  be  free  from  the  difficulty  ?  To  make  sure  of  our 
object,  shall  we  locate  it  nowhere,  and  leave  Congress  here- 
after to  hold  its  sessions  as  the  loafer  lodged,  "  in  spots 
about?"  I  make  no  special  allusion  to  the  present  President 
when  I  say,  there  ai'e  few  stronger  eases  in  this  world  of 
"burden  to  the  many,  and  benefit  to  the  few"  —  of  "ine- 
quality "  —  than  the  Presidency  itself  is  by  some  thought  to 
be.  An  honest  laborer  digs  coal  at  about  seventy  cents  a 
day,  while  the  President  digs  abstractions  at  about  seventy 
dollars  a  day.  The  coal  is  clearly  worth  more  than  the 
ahstrac turns,  and  yet  what  a  monstrous  inequality  in  the  prices  ! 
Does  the  President,  for  this  reason,  propose  to  abolish  the 
Presidency?  He  f/of-s  not,  and  he  ought  i\oi.  The  true  rule, 
in  determining  to  embrace  or  reject  anything,  is  not  whether 
it  have  anij  evil  in  it,  but  whether  it  have  more  of  evil  than 
of  good.     There  are  few  things  loholhj  evil  or  wholly  good. 


I.Il'E    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  95 

Almost  every  thing,  especially  of  government  policy,  is  an 
inseparable  compound  of  the  two;  so  that  our  best  judgment 
of  the  preponderance  between  them  is  continually  demanded. 
On  this  principle,  the  President,  his  friends,  and  the  world 
generally,  act  on  most  subjects.  Why  not  apply  it,  then,  upon 
this  question  ?  Why,  as  to  improvements,  magnify  the  evil, 
and  stoutly  refuse  to  see  any  good  in  them  ? 

Mr.  Chairman,  on  the  third  position  of  the  message  (the 
Constitutional  question)  I  have  not  much  to  say.  Being  the 
man  I  am,  and  speaking  when  I  do,  I  feel  that  in  any  attempt 
at  an  original.  Constitutional  argument,  I  should  not  be,  and 
ought  not  to  be,  listened  to  patiently.  The  ablest  and  the 
best  of  men  have  gone  over  the  whole  ground  long  ago.  I 
shall  attempt  but  little  more  than  a  brief  notice  of  what  some 
of  them  have  said.  In  relation  to  Mr.  Jefferson's  views,  1 
read  from  Mr.  Polk's  veto  message  : 

"President  Jefferson,  in  his  message  to  Congress  in  1806, 
recommended  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution,  with  a  view 
to  apply  an  anticipated  surplus  in  the  treasury  '  to  the  great 
purposes  of  the  public  education,  roads,  rivers,  canals,  and 
such  other  objects  of  public  improvements  as  it  may  be 
thought  proper  to  add  to  the  Constitutional  enumeration  of 
the  Federal  powers.'  And  he  adds  :  '  I  suppose  an  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution,  by  consent  of  the  States,  necessary, 
because  the  objects  now  recommended  are  not  among  those 
enumerated  in  the  Constitution,  and  to  which  it  permits  the 
public  moneys  to  be  applied.'  In  1825,  he  repeated,  in  his 
published  letters,  the  opinion  that  no  such  power  has  been 
conferred  upon  Congress." 

I  introduce  this,  not  to  controvert,  just  now,  the  Constitu- 
tional opinion,  but  to  show,  that  on  the  question  o^  eccpediency, 
Mr.  Jefferson's  opinion  was  against  the  present  President  — 
that  this  opinion  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  one  branch  at  least,  is, 
in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Polk,  like  McFinsjal's  sun  : 

"Bears  wide  and  kicks  the  owner  over." 

But,  to  the  Constitutional  question.  In  1826,  Chancelor 
Kent  first  published  his  Commentaries  on  American  Law. 
He  devoted  a  portion  of  one  of  the  lectures  to  the  question 
of  the  authority  of  Congress  to  appropriate  public  moneys  for 
internal  improvements.  He  mentions  that  the  question  had 
never  been  brought  under  judicial  consideration,  and  proceeds 
to  give  a  brief  summary  of  the  discussions  it  had  undergone 
between  the  legislative  and  executive  branches  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. He  shows  that  the  legislative  branch  had  usually 
been /or,  and  the  executive  against,  the  power,  till  the  period 


^t)  LIFE    OF    ABKAUAM    LINCOLN. 

of  Mr.  J.  Q.  Adams'  administration;  at  which  point  he  con- 
siders the  executive  influence  as  withdrawn  from  opposition, 
and  added  to  the  support  of  the  power.  In  1844,  the  Chan- 
celor  published  a  new  edition  of  his  Commentaries,  in  which 
he  adds  some  notes  of  what  had  tran&pired  on  the  question 
since  1826.  I  have  not  time  to  read  the  original  text,  or  the 
notes,  but  the  whole  may  be  found  on  page  267,  and  the  two 
or  three  following  pages  of  the  first  volume  of  the  edition  of 
1844.  As  what  Chancelor  Kent  seems  to  consider  the  sum 
of  the  whole,  I  read  from  one  of  the  notes  : 

"  Mr.  Justice  Story,  in  his  Commentaries  on  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  vol.  2,  page  429-440,  and  again, 
page  519-538,  has  stated  at  large  the  arguments  for  and 
against  the  proposition  that  Congress  have  a  Constitutional 
authority  to  lay  taxes,  and  to  apply  the  power  to  regulate  com- 
merce, as  a  means  directly  to  encourage  and  protect  domestic 
manufactures  ;  and,  without  giving  any  opinion  of  his  own  on 
the  contested  doctrine,  he  has  left  the  reader  to  draw  his  own 
conclusion.  I  should  think,  however,  from  the  arguments  as 
stated,  that  every  mind  which  has  taken  no  part  in  the  discus- 
sions, and  felt  no  prejudice  or  territorial  bias  on  either  side  of 
the  question,  would  deem  the  arguments  in  favor  of  the  Con- 
gressional power  vastly  superior." 

It  will  be  seen,  that  in  this  extract,  the  power  to  make 
improvements  is  not  directly  mentioned ;  but  by  examining 
the  context,  both  of  Kent  and  of  Story,  it  will  appear  that  the 
power  mentioned  in  the  extract  and  the  power  to  make 
improvements,  are  regarded  as  identical.  It  is  not  to  be 
denied  that  many  great  and  good  men  have  been  against  the 
power ;  but  it  is  insisted  that  quite  as  many,  as  great,  and  as 
good,  have  been /or  it;  and  it  is  shown  that,  on  a  full  survey 
of  the  whole,  Chancelor  Kent  was  of  opinion  that  the  argu- 
ments of  the  latter  were  vastly  superior.  This  is  but  the 
opinion  of  a  man;  but  who  was  that  man?  He  was  one  of 
the  ablest  and  most  learned  lawyers  of  his  age,  or  of  any 
other  age.  It  is  no  disparagement  to  Mr.  Polk,  nor,  indeed, 
to  any  one  who  devotes  much  time  to  politics,  to  be  placed  fur 
behind  Chancelor  Kent  as  a  lawyer.  His  attitude  was  most 
favorable  to  correct  conclusions.  He  wrote  coolly  and  in 
retirement.  He  was  struggling  to  rear  a  durable  monument 
of  fame ;  and  he  well  knew  that  truth  and  thoroughly  sound 
reasoning  were  the  only  sure  foundations.  Can  the  party 
opinion  of  a  party  President,  on  a  law  question,  as  this  purely 
is,  be  at  all  compared  or  set  in  opposition  to  that  of  such  a 
man,  in  such  an  attitude^  as  Chancelor  Kent? 

This  Constitutional  question  will  probably  never  be  better 


LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  97 

settled  than  it  is,  until  it  sliall  pass  under  judicial  considera- 
tion ;  but  I  do  think  that  no  man  who  is  clear  on  this  ques- 
tion of  expediency  need  feel  his  conscience  much  pricked 
upon  this. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  President  seems  to  think  that  enough 
may  be  done  in  the  way  of  improvements,  by  means  of  tun- 
nago  duties,  under  State  authority,  with  the  consent  of  the 
General  Government.  Now,  I  suppose  this  matter  of  tunnage 
duties  is  well  enough  in  its  own  sphere.  I  suppose  it  may  be 
efficient,  and  perhaps  sufficient,  to  make  slight  improvements 
and  repairs  in  harbors  already  in  use,  and  not  much  out  of 
repair.  But  if  I  have  any  correct  general  idea  of  it,  it  must 
be  wholly  inefficient  for  any  generally  beneficent  purposes  of 
improvement.  I  know  very  little,  or  rather  nothing  at  all, 
of  the  practical  matter  of  levying  and  collecting  tunnage 
duties  ;  but  I  suppose  one  of  its  principles  must  be,  to  lay  a 
duty,  for  the  improvement  of  any  particular  harbor,  npon  the 
tunnage  coming  into  that  harbor.  To  do  otherwise  —  to  collect 
money  in' one  harbor  to  be  expended  on  improvements  in 
another  —  would  be  an  extremely  aggravated  form  of  that  ine- 
quality which  the  President  so  much  deprecates.  If  I  be 
right  in  this,  how  could  we  make  any  entirely  new  improve- 
ments by  means  of  tunnage  duties?  How  make  a  road,  a 
canal,  or  clear  a  greatly  obstructed  river?  The  idea  that  we 
could,  involves  the  same  absurdity  of  the  Irish  bull  about  the 
new  boots  :  "  I  shall  niver  git  'em  on,"  says  Patrick.  "  till  I 
wear  'em  a  day  or  two,  and  stretch  'em  a  little."  We  shall 
never  make  a  canal  by  tunnage  duties,  until  it  shall  already 
have  been  made  awhile,  so  the  tunnage  can  get  into  it. 

After  all,  the  President  concludes  that  possibly  there  may 
be  some  great  objects  of  improvements  which  can  not  be 
effected  by  tunnage  duties,  and  which,  therefore,  may  be  expe- 
dient for  the  General  Government  to  take  in  hand.  Accord- 
ingly, he  suggests,  in  case  any  such  be  discovered,  the  pro- 
priety of  amending  the  Constitution.  Amend  it  for  what? 
If,  like  Mr.  Jefferson,  the  President  thought  improvements 
expedient,  but  not  Constitutional,  it  would  be  natural  enough 
for  him  to  recommend  such  an  amendment ;  but  hear  what  he 
says  in  this  very  message  : 

"  In  view  of  these  portentous  consequences,  I  can  not  but 
think  that  this  course  of  legislation  should  be  arrested,  even 
•were  there  nothing  to  forbid  it  in  the  fundamental  laws  of  our 
Union." 

For  what,  then,  would  he.  have  the  Constitution  amended  ? 
With   him  it  is   a    proposition    to  remove    one   impediment, 
merely  to  be  met  by  others,  which,  in  his  opinion,  can  not  be 
9 


S8  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

removed — to  enable  Congress  to  do  what,  in  his  opinion,  they 
ought  not  to  do  if  they  could. 

[Here  Mr.  Meade,  of  Virginia,  inquired  if  Mr.  L.  under- 
stood the  President  to  be  opposed,  on  grounds  of  expediency, 
to  any  and  every  improvement?] 

To  which  Mr.  Lincoln  answered :  In  the  very  part  of  his 
message  of  which  I  am  now  speaking,  I  understand  him  as 
giving  some  vague  expressions  in  favor  of  some  possible 
objects  of  improvements  ;  but,  in  doing  so,  I  understand  him 
to  be  d";ectly  in  the  teeth  of  his  own  arguments  in  other  parts 
of  it.  Neither  the  President,  nor  any  one,  can  possibly  specify 
an  improvement,  which  shall  not  be  clearly  liable  to  one  or 
another  of  the  objections  he  has  urged  on  the  score  of  expedi- 
ency. I  have  shown,  and  might  show  again,  that  no  work- — 
no  object — can  be  so  general,  as  to  dispense  its  benefits  with 
precise  equality ;  and  this  inequality  is  chief  among  the 
"  portentous  consequences  "  for  which  he  declares  that  improve- 
ments should  be  arrested.  No,  sir  ;  when  the  President  inti- 
mates that  something  in  the  way  of  improvements  may  prop- 
erly be  done  by  the  General  Government,  he  is  shrinking  from 
the  conclusions  to  which  his  own  arguments  would  force  him. 
He  feels  that  the  improvements  of  this  broad  and  goodly  land 
are  a  mighty  interest  ;  and  he  is  unwilling  to  confess  to  the 
people,  or  perhaps  to  himself,  that  he  has  built  an  argument 
which,  when  pressed  to  its  conclusion,  entirely  annihilates  this 
interest. 

I  have  already  said  that  no  one  who  is  satisfied  of  the  expe- 
diency of  making  improvements  need  be  much  uneasy  in  his 
conscience  about  its  Constitutionality.  I  wish  now  to  submit 
a  few  remarks  on  the  general  proposition  of  amending  the 
Constitution.  As  a  general  rule,  I  think  we  would  do  much 
better  to  let  it  alone.  No  slight  occasion  should  tempt  us  to 
touch  it.  Better  not  take  the  first  step,  which  may  lead  to  a 
habit  of  altering  it.  Better  rather  habituate  ourselves  to  think 
of  it  as  unalterable.  It  can  scarcely  be  made  better  than  it  is. 
New  provisions  would  introduce  new  difficulties,  and  thus  cre- 
ate and  increase  appetite  for  further  change.  No,  sir;  let  it 
stand  as  it  is.  New  hands  have  never  touched  it.  The  men 
who  made  it  have  done  their  work,  and  have  passed  away. 
Who  shall  improve  on  what  tliey  did  ? 

Mr.  Chairman,  for  the  purpose  of  reviewing  this  message  in 
the  least  possible  time,  as  well  as  for  the  sake  of  distinctness, 
I  have  analyzed  its  arguments  as  well  as  I  could,  and  reduced 
them  to  the  propositions  I  have  stated.  I  have  now  examined 
them  in  detail.  I  wish  to  detain  the  committee  only  a  little 
while  longer,  with  some  general  remarks  on  the  subject  of 


LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  99 

improvements.  That  the  suhject  is  a  difficult  one,  can  not  be 
denied.  Still,  it  is  no  more  ditiicult  in  Congress  than  in  the 
State  legislatures,  in  the  counties,  or  in  the  smallest  municipal 
districts  which  everywhere  exist.  All  can  recur  to  instances 
of  this  difficulty  in  the  case  of  county  roads,  bridges,  and  the 
like.  One  man  is  oifended  because  a  road  passes  over  his 
land  ;  and  another  is  offended  because  it  does  not  pass  over 
his  ;  one  is  dissatisfied  because  the  bridge,  for  which  he  is 
taxed,  crosses  the  river  on  a  different  road  from  that  which 
leads  from  his  house  to  town  ;  another  can  not  bear  that  the 
county  should  get  in  debt  for  these  same  roads  and  bridges; 
while  not  a  few  struimle  hard  to  have  roads  located  over  their 
lands,  and  then  stoutly  refuse  to  let  them  be  opened,  until  they 
are  first  paid  the  damages.  Even  between  the  different  wards 
and  streets  of  towns  and  cities,  we  find  this  same  wrangling 
and  difficulty.  Now,  these  are  no  other  than  the  very  difficul- 
ties against  which,  and  out  of  which,  the  President  constructs 
his  objections  of  "  inequality,"  "  speculation,"  and  "  crushing 
the  Treasury."  There  is  but  a  single  alternative  about  them — • 
they  ave  sufficient,  or  they  are  7iot.  If  sufficient,  they  are  suffi- 
cient out  of  Congress  as  well  as  in  it,  and  there  is  the  end. 
We  must  reject  them  as  insufficient,  or  lie  down  and  do  noth- 
ing by  any  authority.  Then,  difficulty  though  there  be,  let  us 
meet  and  overcome  it. 

"  Attempt  the  end,  and  never  stand  to  doubt ; 
Nothing  so  hard,  but  search  will  find  it  out." 

Determine  that  the  thing  can  and  shall  be  done,  and  then 
we  shall  find  the  way.  The  tendency  to  undue  expansion  is 
unquestionably  the  chief  difficulty.  How  to  do  something,  and 
still  not  to  do  too  much,  is  the  desideratum.  Let  each  con- 
tribute his  mite  in  the  way  of  suggestion.  The  late  Silas 
AVright,  in  a  letter  to  the  Chicago  convention,  contributed  his, 
which  was  worth  something ;  and  I  now  contribute  mine, 
which  may  be  worth  nothing.  At  all  events,  it  will  mislead 
nobody,  and  therefore  will  do  no  harm.  I  would  not  borrow 
money.  I  am  against  an  overwhelming,  crushing  system. 
Suppose  that  at  each  session.  Congress  shall  first  determine 
how  much  money  can,  for  that  year,  be  spared  for  improve- 
ments ;  then  apportion  that  sum  to  the  most  important  objects. 
So  far  all  is  easy';  but  how  shall  we  determine  which  are  the 
most  important  ?  On  this  question  comes  the  collision  of 
interests,  /shall  be  slow  to  acknowledge  iha.i  your  harbor  or 
your  river  is  more  important  than  mine,  and  vice  versa.  To 
clear  this  difficulty,  let  us  have  that  same  statistical  informa- 
tion which  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Vinton]  suggested 


100  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

at  the  beginning;  of  this  session.  In  that  information  we  shall 
have  a  stern,  unbending  basis  o?  facts — a  basis  in  nowise  sub- 
ject to  whim,  caprice,  or  local  interest.  The  pre-limited 
amount  of  means  will  save  us  from  doing  too  much,  and  the 
statistics  will  save  us  from  doing  what  we  do,  in  wrong  places. 
Adopt  and  adhere  to  this  course,  and,  it  seems  to  me,  the  dif- 
ficulty is  cleared. 

One  of  the  gentlemen  from  South  Carolina  (Mr.  Ehett) 
very  much  deprecates  these  statistics.  He  particularly  objects, 
as  I  understand  him,  to  counting  all  the  pigs  and  chickens 
in  the  land.  I  do  not  perceive  much  force  in  the  objection. 
It  is  true,  that  if  everything  be  enumerated,  a  portion  of  such 
statistics  may  not  be  very  useful  to  this  object.  Such  products 
of  the  country  as  are  to  be  consumed  where  they  are  produced, 
need  no  roads  and  rivers,  no  means  of  transportation,  and  have 
no  very  proper  connection  with  this  subject.  The  suiplus, 
that  which  is  produced  in  one  place  to  be  consumed  in  another; 
the  capacity  of  each  locality  for  producing  a  greater  surplus ; 
the  natural  means  of  transportation,  and  their  susceptibility 
of  improvement;  the  hindrances,  delays,  and  losses  of  life 
and  property  during  transportation,  and  the  causes  of  each, 
would  be  among  the  most  valuable  statistics  in  this  connection. 
From  these  it  would  readily  appear  where  a  given  amount  of 
expenditure  would  do  the  most  good.  These  statistics  might 
be  equally  accessible,  as  they  would  be  equally  useful,  to  both 
the  nation  and  the  States.  In  this  way,  and  by  the.^e  means, 
let  the  nation  take  hold  of  the  larger  works,  and  the  States 
the  smaller  ones ;  and  thus,  working  in  a  meeting  direction, 
discreetly,  but  steadily  and  firmly,  what  is  made  unequal  in 
one  place  may  be  equalized  in  another,  extravagance  avoided, 
and  the  whole  country  put  on  that  career  of  prosperity,  which 
shall  correspond  with  its  extent  of  territory,  its  natural 
resources,  and  the  intelligence  and  enterprise   of  its   people. 

The  first  session  of  the  Thirtieth  Congress  was  prolonged 
far  beyond  the  date  of  the  Presidential  nominations  of  1848, 
and  the  canvass  was  actively  carried  on  by  members  on  the 
floor  of  the  House.  Mr.  Lincoln  warmly  sustained  the  nomi- 
nation of  Gen.  Taylor,  and  before  the  adjournment  of  Con- 
gress, he  made,  in  accordance  with  precedent  and  general 
practice,  one  of  his  characteristic  campaign  speeches.  He 
showed  himself  a  man  of  decided  partizan  feelings,  and  entered 
into  this  contest  with  zeal,  not  only  repelling  the  violent  attacks 
upon  the  Whig  candidate,  but  showing  that  there  were  blows 


LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  101 

to  be  given  as  well  as  taken.  He  said  some  things  in  a  vein 
of  sarcastic  liuraor,  which  could  only  have  been  mistaken  for 
actual  bitterness,  by  those  who  did  not  know  the  really  genial 
character  of  the  man.  Argument,  ridicule  and  illustrative 
anecdotes  were  brought  into  requisition,  with  great  ability  and 
unsparing  boldness,  in  setting  the  real  issues  of  the  canvass, 
political  and  personal,  in  what  he  deemed  a  proper  light  before 
the  people. 

Although  containing  so  many  things  of  mere  temporary  inter- 
est, this  speech  will  be  read  with  avidity  at  the  present  time,  an=d 
particularly  on  account  of  several  passages  which  have  especial 
significance  from  the  position  Mr.  Lincoln  himself  now  occu- 
pies— what  had  then  probably  never  once  seriously  entered  his 
thoughts  as  among  the  events  of  the  future.  This  effort  will 
perhaps  give  occasional  offense  to  the  purist  in  style,  but  its 
manly  earnestness  and  force,  and  its  adaptedness  to  popular 
effect  as  a  campaign  document,  will  not  be  called  in  question. 
It  is  obvious  that  some  change  has  taken  place  in  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's manner  of  speaking  since  those  days,  yet  his  first 
appearance  in  the  national  arena  of  politics  exhibited  that 
rugged  strength  and  that  earnest  directness  of  expression  which 
have  given  him  permanent  power  with  popular  auditories, 

MB.  LINCOLN'S   SPEECH  ON  THE  PRESIDENCY  AND  GENERAL  POLITICS. 

{Delivered  in  the  House,  July  27,  1848.) 

GEN.  TAYLOR  AND  THE  VETO  POWER. 

Mr.  Lincoln  said — 

Mr.  Speaker  : — Our  Democratic  friends  seem  to  be  in  great 
distress  because  they  think  our  candidate  for  the  Presidency 
don't  suit  vs.  Most  of  them  can  not  find  out  that  Gen.  Taylor 
has  any  principles  at  all  ;  some,  however,  have  discovered  that 
he  has  one,  but  that  that  one  is  entirely  wrong.  This  one 
principle  is  his  position  on  the  veto  power.  The  gentleman 
from  Tennessee  (Mr.  Stanton)  who  has  just  taken  his  seat, 
indeed,  has  said  there  is  very  little  if  any  difference  on  this  ques- 
tion between  Gen.  Taylor  and  all  the  Presidents  ;  and  he  seems; 
to  think  it  sufficient  detraction  from  Gen.  Taylor's  position  on 
it,  that  it  has  nothing  new  in  it.  But  all  others,  whom  I  have 
heard  speak,  assail  it  furiously.     A  new  member  from  Ken- 


102  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

tucky  (Mr.  Clarke*)  of  very  considerable  ability,  was  in  partic- 
ular concern  about  it.  He  thought  it  altogether  novel  and 
unprecedented  for  a  President,  or  a  Presidential  candidate,  to 
think  of  approving  bills  "whose  Constitutionality  may  not  be 
entirely  clear  to  his  own  mind.  He  thinks  the  ark  of  our 
safety  is  gone,  unless  Presidents  shall  always  veto  such  hills  as, 
in  their  judgment,  may  be  of  chnihtful  Constitutionality. 
However  clear  Congress  may  be  of  their  authority  to  pass  any 
particular  act,  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky  thinks  the  Presi- 
dent must  veto  it  if  lie  has  doubts  about  it.  Now  I  have  neither 
time  nor  inclination  to  argue  with  the  gentleman  on  the  veto 
power  as  an  original  question  ;  but  I  wish  to  show  that  Gen. 
Taylor,  and  not  he,  agrees  with  the  earliest  statesmen  on  this 
question.  When  the  bill  chartering  the  first  Bank  of  the 
United  States  passed  Congress,  its  Constitutionality  was  ques- 
tioned ;  Mr.  Madison,  then  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
as  well  as  others,  had  opposed  it  on  that  ground.  Gen.  Wash- 
ington, as  President,  was  called  on  to  approve  or  reject  it.  He 
sought  and  obtained,  on  the  Constitutional  question,  the  sepa- 
rate written  opinions  of  Jefferson,  Hamilton  and  Edmund  Ran- 
dolph, they  then  being  respectively  Secretary  of  State,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury,  and  Attorney  General.  Hamilton's 
opinion  was  for  the  power  ;  while  Randolph's  and  Jefferson's 
were  both  against  it.  Mr.  Jefferson,  after  giving  his  opinion 
decidedly  against  the  Constitutionality  of  that  bill,  closed  his 
letter  with  the  paragraph  which  I  now  read : 

"  It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  unless  the  President's 
mind,  on  a  view  of  everything  which  is  urged  for  and  against 
this  bill,  is  tolerably  clear  that  it  is  unauthorized  by  the  Con- 
stitution ;  if  the  pro  and  the  con  hang  so  even  as  to  balance 
his  judgment,  a  just  respect  for  the  wisdom  of  the  Legislature 
would  naturally  decide  the  balance  in  favor  of  their  opinion  ; 
it  is  chiefly  for  cases  where  they  are  clearly  misled  by  error, 
ambition  or  interest,  that  the  Constitution  has  placed  a  check 
in  the  negative  of  the  President.  Thomas  Jefferson. 

'^Fehruanj  15,  1791." 

Gen.  Taylor's  opinion,  as  expressed  in  his  Allison  letter,  is 
as  I  now  read  : 

"  The  power  given  by  the  veto  is  a  high  conservative  power  ; 
but,  in  my  opinion,  should  never  be  exercised,  except  in  cases 
of  clear  violation  of  the  Constitution,  or  manifest  haste  and 
want  of  consideration  by  Congress." 

It  is  here  seen  that,  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  opinion,  if,  on  the 
Constitutionality  of  any  given  bill,  the  President  doubts,  he  is 

*The  late  Hon.  Beverly  L.  Clarke. 


LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  103 

not  to  veto  it,  as  tlie  gentleman  from  Kentucky  would  have 
liim  to  do,  but  is  to  defer  to  Congi'ess  and  apjorove  it.  And  if 
we  compare  the  opinions  of  Jefferson  and  Taylor,  as  expressed 
in  these  paragraphs,  we  shall  find  them  more  exactly  alike  than 
we  can  often  find  any  two  expressions  having  any  literal  differ- 
ence. None  but  interested  fault-finders,  can  discover  any  sub- 
stantial variation. 

THE  NATIONAL  ISSUES. 

But  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  are  unanimously  agreed 
that  Gen.  Taylor  has  no  other  principle.  They  are  in  utter 
darkness  as  to  his  opinions  on  any  of  the  questions  of  policy 
which  occupy  the  public  attention.  But  is  there  any  doubt  as 
to  what  he  will  do  on  the  prominent  questions,  if  elected  ? 
Not  the  least.  It  is  not  possible  to  know  what  he  will  or 
would  do  in  every  imaginable  case ;  because  many  questions 
have  passed  away,  and  others  doubtless  will  arise  which  none 
of  us  have  yet  thought  of;  but  on  the  prominent  questions  of 
currency,  tariff,  internal  improvements,  and  Wilmot  proviso, 
General  Taylor's  course  is  at  least  as  well  defined  as  is  General 
Cass's.  Why,  in  their  eagerness  to  get  at  General  Taylor, 
several  Democratic  members  here  have  desired  to  know 
whether,  in  case  of  his  election,  a  bankrupt  law  is  to  be  estab- 
lished. Can  they  tell  us  General  Cass's  opinion  on  this  ques- 
tion? (Some  member  answered,  "  He  is  against  it.")  Aye, 
how  do  you  knovr  he  is  ?  There  is  nothijjg  about  it  in  the 
platform,  nor  elsewhere,  that  I  have  seen.  If  the  gentleman 
knows  anything  which  I  do  not,  he  can  show  it.  Biit  to  return  : 
General  Taylor,  in  his  Allison  letter,  says : 

"  Upon  the  subject  of  the  tarifi",  the  currency,  the  improve- 
ment of  our  great  highways,  rivers,  lakes,  and  harbors,  the  will 
of  the  people,  as  expressed  through  their  Representatives  in 
Congress,  ought  to  be  respected  and  carried  out  by  the 
Executive." 

A  PRESIDENCY  FOR  THE  PEOPLE. 

Now,  this  is  the  whole  matter — in  substance,  it  is  this :  The 
people  say  to  General  Taylor,  "  If  you  are  elected,  shall  we 
have  a  national  bank?"  He  answers,  "  Your  will,  gentlemen, 
not  mine:''  "What  about  the  tarifi"?"  "Say  yourselves." 
"  Shall  our  rivers  and  harbors  be  improved?"  "  Just  as  you 
please."  "  If  you  desire  a  bank,  an  alteration  of  the  tarifi", 
internal  improvements,  any  or  all,  I  will  not  hinder  you ;  if 
you  do  not  desire  them,  I  will  not  attempt  to  force  them  on 
you."  "  Send  up  your  members  of  Congress  from  the  various 
districts,  with  opinions  according  to  your  own,  and  if  they  are 
for  these  measures,  or  any  of  them,  I  shall  have  nothing  to 


104  LIFE   OP    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

oppose;  if  they  are  not  for  them,  I  shall  not,  by  any  appliances 
whatever,    attempt    to    dragoon    them    into    their    adoption." 
Now,  can  there  be  any  dithcuity  in  understanding  this?     To 
you,  Democrats,  it  may  not  seem  like  principle  ;  but  surely  you 
can  not  fail  to  perceive  the  position  plainly  enough.     The  dis- 
tinction between  it  and  the  position  of  your  candidate  is  broad 
and  obvious,  and  I  admit  you  have  a  clear  right  to  show  it  is 
wrong,  if  you  can  ;    but  you  have  no  right  to  pretend   you 
can  not  see  it  at  all.     We  see  it,  and  to  us  it  appears  like  prin- 
ciple, and  the  best  sort  of  principle  at  that — the  principle  of 
allowing  the  people  to  do  as  they  please  with  their  own  business. 
My  friend  from  Indiana   (Mr.  C.  B.  Smith)   has  aptly  asked, 
"Are  you  willing  to  trust  the  people  ?"     Some  of  you  answered, 
substantially,  "  We  are  willing  to  trust  the  people  ;    but  the 
President  is  as  much  the  representative  of  the  people  as  Con- 
gress."    In  a  certain  sense,  and  to  a  certain  extent,  he  is  the 
representative  of  the  people.     He  is  elected  by  them,  as  well 
as  Congress  is.     But  can  he,  in  the  nature  of  things,  know  the 
wants  of  the  people  as  well  as  three  hundred  other  men  coming 
from  all  the  various  localities  of  the  nation  ?     If  so,  where  is 
the  propriety  of  having  a  Congress  ?     That  the  Constitution 
gives  the  President  a   negative  on  legislation,  all  know;   but 
that  this  negative  should  be  so  combined  with  platforms  and 
other  appliances  as  to  enable  him,  and,  in  fact,  almost  compel 
him,  to  take  the  whole  of  legislation  into  his  own  hands,  is 
what  we  object  to — is  what  General  Taylor  objects  to — and  is 
what  constitutes   the   broad   distinction  between   you  and  us. 
To  thus  transfer  legislation  is  clearly  to  take  it  from  those  who 
understand  with   minuteness  the  interest  of  the  people,  and 
give  it  to  one  who  does  not  and  can  not  so  well  understand  it. 
I  understand  your  idea,  that  if  a  Presidential  candidate  avow 
his    opinion    upon    a    given    question,    or    rather    upon    all 
questions,    and    the    people,    with   full     knowledge    of    this, 
elect    him,    they    thereby  distinctly  approve  all   those  opin- 
ions.     This,    though    plausible,    is  a  most  pernicious  decep- 
tion.    By  means    of    it    measures    are    adopted    or    rejected, 
contrary  to  the  wishes  of  the  whole  of  one  party,  and  often 
nearly  half  of  the  other.      The  process  is  this :  Three,  four, 
or  half  a  dozen    questions    are    prominent   at  a  given  time ; 
the  party  selects  its  candidate,  and  he  takes  his  position  on 
each  of  these  questions.     On  all  but  one  his  positions  have 
already  been  indorsed  at  former  elections,  and  his  party  fully 
committed  to  them ;    but  that  one  is  new,  and  a  lar^e  portion 
of  them  are  against  it.     But  what  are  they  to  do?     The  whole 
are  strung  together,  and  they  must  take  all  or  reject  all.    They 
can  not  take  what  they  like  and  leave  the  rest.     What  they 


LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  105 

are  already  committed  to,  beinp;  the  majority,  they  shut  their 
eyes  and  gulp  the  whole.  Next  election,  still  another  is 
introduced  in  the  same  way.  If  we  run  our  eyes  along  the 
line  of  the  past,  we  shall  see  that  almost,  if  not  quite,  all  the 
articles  of  the  present  Democratic  creed  have  been  at  first 
forced  upon  the  party  in  this  very  way.  And  just  now,  and 
just  so,  opposition  to  internal  improvements  is  to  be  estab- 
lished if  Gen.  Cass  shall  be  elected.  Almost  half  the  Demo- 
crats here  are  for  improvements,  but  they  will  vote  for  Cass, 
and  if  he  succeeds,  their  votes  will  have  aided  in  closing  the 
doors  against  improvements.  Now,  this  is  a  process  which  we 
think  is  wrong.  We  prefer  a  candidate  who,  like  Gen.  Taylor, 
will  allow  the  people  to  have  their  own  way  regardless  of  his 
private  opinion  ;  and  I  should  think  the  internal-improve- 
ment Democrats  at  least,  ought  to  prefer  such  a  candidate.  He 
would  force  nothing  on  them  which  they  don't  want,  and  he 
would  allow  them  to  have  improvements,  which  their  own 
.candidate,  if  elected,  will  not. 

GEN.    TAYLOR,   AND    THE   WILMOT   PROVISO. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  said  Gen.  Taylor's  position  is  as  well 
defined  as  is  that  of  Gen.  Cass.  In  saying  this,  I  admit 
I  do  not  certainly  know  what  he  would  do  on  the  Wilmot 
proviso.  I  am  a  Northern  man,  or,  rather,  a  Western  free  State 
man,  with  a  constituency  I  believe  to  be,  and  with  personal 
feelings  I  know  to  be,  against  the  extension  of  slavery.  As 
such,  and  with  what  information  1  have,  I  hope,  and  believe, 
Gen.  Taylor,  if  elected,  would  not  veto  the  proviso ;  but  I  do 
not  know  it.  Yet,  if  I  knew  he  would,  I  still  would  vote  for 
him.  I  should  do  so,  because,  in  my  judgment,  his  election 
alone  can  defeat  Gen.  Cass ;  and  because,  should  slavery 
thereby  go  into  the  territory  we  now  have,  just  so  much  will 
certainly  happen  by  the  election  of  Cass ;  and,  in  addition,  a 
course  of  policy  leading  to  new  wars,  new  acquisitions  of 
territory,  and  still  further  extensions  of  slavery.  One  of  the 
two  is  to  be  President;  which  is  preferable? 

CASS   ON    INTERNAL   IMPROVEMENTS. 

But  there  is  as  much  doubt  of  Cass  on  improvements 
as  there  is  of  Taylor  on  the  proviso.  I  have  no  doubt  myself 
of  Gen.  Cass  on  this  question,  but  I  know  the  Democrats 
differ  among  themselves  as  to  his  position.  My  internal 
improvement  colleague  (Mr.  Wentworth)  stated  on  this 
floor  the  other  day,  that  he  was  satisfied  Cass  was  for 
improvements,  because  he  had  votedfor  all  the  bills  that  he  (  Mr. 
W.)  had.  So  far  so  good.  But  Mr.  Polk  vetoed  some  of 
10 


106  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

these  very  bills ;  the  Baltimore  Convention  passed  a  set  of 
resolutions,  among  other  things,  approving  these  vetoes,  and 
Cass  declares,  in  his  letter  accepting  the  nomination,  that 
he  has  carefully  read  these  resolutions,  and  that  he  adheres  to 
them  as  firmly  as  he  approves  them  cordially.  In  other  words, 
Gen.  Cass  voted  for  the  bills,  and  thinks  the  President  did 
right  to  veto  them;  and  his  friends  here  are  amiable  enough 
to  consider  him  as  being  on  one  side  or  the  other,  just  as  one 
or  the  other  may  correspond  with  their  own  respective  incli- 
nations. My  colleague  admits  that  the  platform  declares 
against  the  Constitutionality  of  a  general  system  of  improve- 
ments, and  that  Gen.  Cass  indorses  the  platform  ;  but  he  still 
thinks  Gen.  Cass  is  in  favor  of  some  sort  of  improvements. 
Well,  what  are  they?  As  he  is  against  general  objects,  those 
he  is  for,  must  be  partlcidar  and  local.  Now,  this  is  taking 
the  subject  precisely  by  the  wrong  end.  Parficiifarifi/ — 
expending  the  money  of  the  ichole  ])eople  for  an  object  which 
will  benefit  only  a  jiortion  of  them,  is  the  greatest  real  objec- 
tion to  improvements,  and  has  been  so  held  by  Gen.  Jackson, 
J\Ir.  Polk,  and  all  others,  I  believe,  till  now.  But  now, 
behold,  the  objects  most  general,  nearest  free  from  this  objec- 
tion, are  to  be  rejected,  while  those  most  liable  to  it  are  to  be 
embraced.  To  return  :  I  can  not  help  believing  that  Gen. 
Cass,  when  he  wrote  his  letter  of  acceptance,  well  understood 
he  was  to  be  claimed  by  the  advocates  of  both  sides  of  this 
question,  and  that  he  then  closed  the  door  against  all  further 
expressions  of  opinion,  purposely  to  retain  the  benefits  of  that 
double  position.  His  subsequent  equivocation  at  Cleveland, 
to  my  mind,  proves  such  to  have  been  the  case. 

PL.A.TFORMS. 

One  word  more,  and  I  shall  have  done  with  this  branch  of 
the  subject.  You  Democrats,  and  your  candidate,  in  the  main 
are  in  favor  of  laying  down,  in  advance,  a  platform — a  set  of 
party  positions,  as  a  unit;  and  then  of  enforcing  the  people, 
by  every  sort  of  appliance,  to  ratify  them,  however  unpalata- 
ble some  of  them  may  be.  We,  and  our  candidate,  are  in 
favor  of  making  Presidential  elections  and  the  legislation  of 
the  country  distinct  matters ;  so  that  the  people  can  elect 
whom  they  please,  and  afterward  legislate  just  as  they  please, 
without  any  hindrance,  save  only  so  much  as  may  guard 
against  infractions  of  the  Constitution,  undue  haste,  and  want 
of  consideration.  The  difference  between  us  is  clear  as  noon- 
day. That  we  are  right  we  can  not  doubt.  We  hold  the  true 
Republican  position.      In    leaving   the   people's  business  in 


LIFE    OF    AiniATIAM    LINCOLN.  107 

their  hands,  we  can  not  be  wrong.     We  are  willing,  and  even 
anxious,  to  go  to  the  people  on  this  issue. 

MR.  clay's  defeat  AND  DEMOCRATIC  SYMPATHIES. 

But  I  suppose  I  can  not  reasonably  hope  to  convince  you 
that  we  have  any  principles.  The  most  I  can  expect  is,  to 
assure  you  that  we  think  we  have,  and  are  quite  contented 
with  them.  The  other  day,  one  of  the  gentlemen  from 
Georgia  ( Mr.  Iverson ),  an  eloquent  man,  and  a  man  of 
learning,  so  far  as  I  can  judge,  not  being  learned  myself, 
came  down  upon  us  astonishingly.  lie  spoke  in  what  tho 
Baltimore  American  calls  the  "  scathing  and  withering  style." 
At  the  end  of  his  second  severe  flash  I  was  struck  blind,  and 
found  myself  feeling  with  my  fingers  for  an  assurance  of  my 
continued  physical  existence.  A  little  of  the  bone  was  left, 
and  I  gradually  revived.  Ho  eulogized  Mr.  Clay  in  high  and 
beautiful  terms,  and  then  declared  that  we  had  deserted  all 
our  principles,  and  had  turned  Henry  Clay  out,  like  an  old 
horse,  to  root.  This  is  terribly  severe.  It  can  not  be 
answered  by  argument ;  at  least,  I  can  not  so  answer  it.  I 
merely  wish  to  ask  the  gentleman  if  the  Whigs  are  the  only 
party  he  can  think  of,  who  sometimes  turn  old  horses  out  to 
root?  Is  not  a  certain  Martin  Van  Buren  an  old  horse, 
which  your  own  party  have  turned  out  to  root?  and  is  he  not 
rooting  a  little  to  your  discomfort  about  now?  But  in  not 
nominating  Mr.  Clay,  we  deserted  our  principles,  you  say. 
Ah!  in  what?  Tell  us,  ye  men  of  principles,  what  principle 
we  violated?  We  .say  you  did  violate  principle  in  discarding 
Van  Buren,  and  we  can  tell  you  how.  You  violated  the 
primary,  the  cardinal,  the  one  great  living  principle  of  all 
Democratic  representative  government — the  principle  that  the 
representative  is  bound  to  carry  out  the  known  will  of  his 
constituents.  A  large  majority  of  the  Baltimore  Convention 
of  18-i4  were,  by  their  constituents,  instructed  to  procure 
Van  Buren's  nomination  if  they  could.  In  violation,  in 
utter,  glaring  contempt  of  this,  you  rejected  him— rejected 
him,  as  the  gentleman  from  New  York  (  Mr.  Birdsall ),  the 
other  day  expressly  admitted,  ft)r  availdhi.lilj/ — that  same 
"general  availability"  which  you  charge  upon  us,  and  daily 
chew  over  here,  as  something  exceedingly  odious  and  unprin- 
cipled. But  the  gentleman  from  Georgia  (  Mr.  Iverson), 
gave  us  a  second  speech  yesterday,  all  well  considered  and 
put  down  in  writing,  in  which  Van  Buren  was  scathed  and 
withered  a  "few"  for  his  present  position  and  movements.  I 
can  not  remember   the  gentleman's  precise  language,  but  I  do 


108  LIFE    OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

remember  he  put  Van  Buren   down,  down,   till   he   got  him 
■where  he  was  finally  to  "  stink  "  and  "  rot." 

Mr.  Speaker,  it  is  no  business  or  inclination  of  mine  to 
defend  Martin  Van  Buren.  In  the  war  of  extermination  now 
waging  between  him  and  his  old  admirers,  I  say,  devil  take 
the  hindmost — and  the  foremost.  But  there  is  no  mistaking; 
the  origin  of  the  breach  ;  and  if  the  curse  of  "stinking"  and 
"rotting"  is  to  fall  on  the  first  and  greatest  violaters  of  princi- 
ple in  the  matter,  I  disinterestedly  suggest,  that  the  gentleman 
from  Georgia  and  his  present  co-workers  are  bound  to  take  it 
upon  themselves, 

[Mr.  Lincoln  then  proceeded  to  speak  of  the  objections 
against  Gen.  Taylor  as  a  mere  military  hero ;  retorting  with 
effect,  by  citing  the  attempt  to  make  out  a  military  record  for 
Gen.  Cass;  and  referring,  in  a  bantering  way,  to  his  own  ser- 
vices in  the  Black  Hawk  war,  as  already  quoted.  He  then 
said : — ] 

CASS  ON  THE  WILMOT  PROVISO. 

While  I  have  Gen.  Cass  in  hand,  I  wish  to  say  a  word  about 
his  political  principles.  As  a  specimen,  I  take  the  record  of 
his  progress  on  the  Wilmot  Proviso.  In  the  Washington 
Union,  of  March  2,  1847,  there  is  a  report  of  the  speech  of 
Gen.  Cass,  made  the  day  before  in  the  Senate,  on  the  Wilmot 
Proviso,  during  the  delivery  of  which  Mr.  Miller,  of  New 
Jersey,  is  reported  to  have  interrupted  him  as  follows,  to-wit : 

"  Mr.  Miller  expressed  his  great  surprise  at  the  change  in 
the  sentiments  of  the  Senator  from  Michigan,  who  had  been 
regarded  as  the  great  champion  of  freedom  in  the  North-west 
of  which  he  was  a  distinguished  ornament.  Last  year  the 
Senator  from  Michigan  was  understood  to  be  decidedly  in  favor 
of  the  Wilmot  Proviso  ;  and,  as  no  reason  had  been  stated  for 
the  change,  he  (Mr.  Miller)  could  not  refrain  from  the  expres- 
sion of  his  extreme  surprise." 

To  this  Gen.  Cass  is  reported  to  have  replied  as  follows,  to- 
wit  : 

"  Mr.  Cass  said,  that  the  course  of  the  Senator  from  New 
Jersey  was  most  extraordinary.  Last  year  he  (Mr.  Cass) 
should  have  voted  for  the  proposition  had  it  come  up.  But 
circumstances  had  altogether  changed.  The  honorable  Sena- 
tor then  read  several  passages  from  the  remarks  as  given  above, 
which  he  had  committed  to  writing,  in  order  to  refute  such  a 
charge  as  that  of  the  Senator  from  New  Jersey." 


LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  109 

In  the  "remarks  above  committed  to  writing,"  is  one  num- 
bered 4,  as  follows,  lo-wit : 

"  4th.  Legislation  would  now  be  wholly  imperative,  because 
no  territory  hereafter  to  be  acquired  can  be  governed  with- 
out an  act  of  Congress  providing  for  its  government.  And 
such  an  act,  on  its  passage,  would  open  the  whole  subject,  and 
leave  the  Congress,  called  on  to  pass  it,  free  to  exercise  its  own 
discretion,  entirely  uncontrolled  by  any  declaration  found  in 
the  statute  book." 

In  Niles'  Register,  vol.  73,  page  293,  there  is  a  letter  of  Gen. 
Cass  to  A.  0.  P.  Nicholson,  of  Nashville,  Tennessee,  dated 
December  24,  1847,  from  which  the  following  are  correct 
extracts  : 

"  The  Wilmot  Proviso  has  been  before  the  country  some 
time.  It  has  been  repeatedly  discussed  in  Congress,  and  by 
the  public  press.  I  am  strongly  impressed  with  the  opinion 
that  a  great  change  has  been  going  on  in  the  public  mind 
upon  this  subject — in  my  own  as  well  as  others  ;  and  that 
doubts  are  resolving  themselves  into  convictions,  that  the  prin- 
ciple it  involves  should  be  kept  out  of  the  National  Legislature, 
and  left  to  the  people  of  the  Confederacy  in  their  respective 
local  Governments.  >i=  ^^         ^Ic         *         ^<:         ^1^         * 

"  Briefly,  then,  I  am  opposed  to  the  exercise  of  any  jurisdic- 
tion by  Congress  over  this  matter  ;  and  I  am  in  favor  of  leaving 
the  people  of  any  territory  which  may  be  hereafter  acquired, 
the  right  to  regulate  it  themselves,  under  the  general  principles 
of  the  Constitution.     Because, 

"1.  I  do  not  see  in  the  Constitution  any  grant  of  the 
requisite  power  to  Congress;  and  I  am  not  disposed  to  extend 
a  doubtful  precedent  beyond  its  necessity — the  establishment 
of  territorial  governments  when  needed — leaving  to  the  inhab- 
itants all  the  rights  compatible  with  the  relations  they  bear  to 
the  Confederation." 

AN  OBEDIENT  DEMOCRAT, 

These  extracts  show  that,  in  184G,  Gen.  Cass  was  for  the 
Proviso  at  once ;  that,  in  March,  1847,  he  was  still  for  it,  hut 
not  just  then:  and  that  in  December,  1847,  he  was  against  it 
altogether.  This  is  a  true  index  to  the  whole  man.  When 
the  question  was  raised  in  184G,  he  was  in  a  blustering  hurry 
to  take  ground  for  it.  He  sought  to  be  in  advance,  and  to 
avoid  the  uninteresting  position  of  a  mere  follower  :  but  soon 
he  began  to  sec  glimpses  of  the  great  Democratic  ox-gad  wav- 
ing in  hisftice,  and  to  hear  indistinctly,  a  voice  saying,  "back," 
"  back,  sir,"  "  back  a  little."  He  shakes  his  head  and  bats  his 
eyes,  and  blunders  back  to  his  position  of  March,  1847  ;  but 


110  LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

still  the  gad  waves,  and  the  voice  grows  more  distinct,  and 
sharper  still — •'  back,  sir !  "  "  back,  I  say  !  "  "  further  back  !  " 
and  back  he  goes  to  the  position  of  December,  18-17 ;  at  which 
the  gad  is  still,  and  the  voice  soothingly  says — "  So  !  "  "  Stand 
still  at  that." 

Have  no  fears,  gentlemen,  of  your  candidate ;  he  exactly 
suits  you,  and  we  congratulate  you  upon  it.  However  much 
you  may  be  distressed  about  our  candidate,  you  have  all  cause 
to  be  contented  and  happy  with  your  own.  If  elected,  he  may 
not  maintain  all,  or  even  any  of  his  positions  previously  taken  ; 
but  he  will  be  sure  to  do  whatever  the  party  exigency,  for  the 
time  being,  may  require ;  and  that  is  precisely  what  you  want. 
He  and  Van  Buren  are  the  same  "  manner  of  men  ;  "  and  like 
Van  Buren,  he  will  never  desert  you  till  you  first  desert  him. 

[After  referring  at  some  length  to  extra  "  charges  "  of  Gen. 
Cass  upon  the  Treasury,  Mr.  Lincoln  continued : — ] 

WONDERFUL   PHYSICAL   CAPACITIES. 

But  I  have  introduced  Gen.  Cass's  accounts  here,  chiefly  to 
show  the  wonderful  physical  capacities  of  the  man.  They 
show  that  he  not  only  did  the  labor  of  several  men  at  the  same 
time.,  but  that  he  often  did  it,  at  several  jylaces  many  hundred 
miles  apart,  at  the  same  time.  And  at  eating,  too,  his  capaci- 
ties are  shown  to  be  quite  as  wonderful.  From  October,  1821, 
to  May,  1822,  he  ate  ten  rations  a  day  in  Michigan,  ten  rations 
a  day  here,  in  Washington,  and  near  five  dollar's  worth  a  day 
besides,  partly  on  the  road  between  the  two  places.  And  then 
there  is  an  important  discovery  in  his  example — the  art  of 
being  paid  for  what  one  eats,  instead  of  having  to  pay  for  it. 
Hereafter,  if  any  nice  young  man  shall  owe  a  bill  which  he 
can  not  pay  in  any  other  way,  he  can  just  board  it  out.  Mr. 
Speaker,  we  have  all  heard  of  the  animal  standing  in  doubt 
between  two  stacks  of  hay,  and  starving  to  death ;  the  like  of 
that  would  never  happen  to  Gen.  Cass.  Place  the  stacks  a 
thousand  miles  apart,  he  would  stand  stock-still,  midway 
between  them,  and  eat  them  both  at  once ;  and  the  green  grass 
along  the  line  would  be  apt  to  suffer  some  too,  at  the  same 
time.  By  all  means,  make  him  President,  gentlemen.  He 
will  feed  you  bounteously — if — if  there  is  any  left  after  he 
shall  have  helped  himself. 

THE    WHIGS   AND   THE    MEXICAN   WAR. 

But  as  Gen.  Taylor,  is,  par  excellence,  the  hero  of  the  Mexi- 
can war;   and,  as  you  Democrats  say  we  Whigs  have  always 


LIFE  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  Ill 

opposed    the  war,  you    think   it   must   be  very  awkward  and 
embarrassing  for  us   to   go  for  Gen.  Taylor.     The  declaration 
that  we  have  always  opposed  the  war,  is  true  or  false  accordingly 
as  one  may  understand   the  term  "  opposing  the  war."     If  to 
say  "  the  war  was   unnecessarily  and   unconstitutionally  com- 
menced   by  the    President,"  be    opposing    the  war,  then    the 
Whigs  have  very  generally  opposed  it.     Whenever  they  have 
spoken  at  all,  they  have  said  this ;   and  they  have  said  it  on 
what    has    appeared    good    reason    to    them :     The  marching 
an  army  into  the   midst  of  a    peaceful    Mexican   settlement, 
frightening  the  inhabitants  away,  leaving  their  growing  crops 
and  other  property  to  destruction,  to   tjou  may  appear  a  per- 
fectly amiable,  peaceful,  unprovoking  procedure;   but  it  does 
not  appear  so  to  us.     So  to  call  such  an  act,  to  us  appears  no 
other  than  a  naked,  im])udent  absurdity,  and  we  speak  of  it 
accordingly.     But  if,  when  the  war  had  begun,  and  had  be- 
come the  cause  of  the  country,  the  giving  of  our  money  and 
our  blood,  in  common  with  yours,  was  support  of  the  war,  then 
it  is  not  true  that  we  have  always  opposed  the  war.     With  few 
individual  exceptions,  you  have  constantly  had  our  votes  here 
for  all  the  necessary  supplies.     And,  more  than  this,  you  have 
had  the  services,  the  blood,  and  the  lives  of  our  political  breth- 
ren in  every  trial,  and  on  every  field.     The  beardless  boy  and 
the  mature  man — the  humble  and  the  distinguished,  you  have 
had  thera.     Through   suffering  and  death,  by  disease  and   in 
battle,  tliey   have  endured,  and    fought,  and  fallen  with   you. 
Clay  and  Webster  each  gave  a  son,  never  to  be  returned.     From 
the  State  of  my  own  residence,  besides  other  worthy  but  less 
known  Whig  names,  we  sent  Marshall,  Morrison,  Baker,  and 
Hardin ;  they  all  fought,  and  one  fell,  and  in  the  fall  of  that 
one,  we  lost  our  best  Whig  man.     Nor  were  the  Whigs  few  in 
number,  or  laggard    in   the   day  of  danger.     In  that  fearful, 
bloody,  breathless  struggle  at  Buena  Vista,  where  each  man's 
hard  task  was  to  beat  back  five  foes,  or  die  himself,  of  the  five 
high  ofiicers  who  perished,  four  were  Whigs. 

In  speaking  of  this,  I  mean  no  odious  comparison  between 
the  lion-hearted  Whigs  and  Democrats  who  fought  there.  On 
other  occasions,  and  among  the  lower  officers  and  privates  on 
that  occasion,  I  doubt  not  the  proportion  was  different.  I 
wish  to  do  justice  to  all.  I  think  of  all  those  brave  men  as 
Americans,  in  whose  proud  fame,  as  an  American,  I  too  have 
a  share.  Many  of  them,  Wliigs  and  Democrats,  are  my  con- 
stituents and  personal  friends;  and  I  thank  them — more  than 
thank  them — one  and  all,  for  the  high,  imperishable  honor 
they  have  conferred  on  our  common  State. 


112  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

AN    IMPORTANT  DISTINCTION. 

But  the  distinction  between  the  cause  of  the  President  in 
beginning  the  war,  and  the  cause  of  the  country  after  it  was 
begun,  is  a  distinction  which  you  can  not  perceive.  To  you, 
the  President  and  the  country  seem  to  be  all  one.  You  are 
interested  to  see  no  distinction  between  them  ;  and  I  venture 
to  suggest  that  possibly  your  interest  blinds  you  a  little.  We 
see  the  distinction,  as  we  think,  clearly  enough  ;  and  our 
friends,  who  have  fought  in  the  war,  have  no  diihculty  in  see- 
ing it  also.  What  those  who  have  fallen  would  say,  were  they 
alive  and  here,  of  course  we  can  never  know  ;  but  with  those 
who  have  returned  there  is  no  difficulty.  Col.  Haskell  and 
Maj.  Gaines,  members  here,  both  fought  in  the  war;  and  one  of 
them  underwent  extraordinary  perils  and  hardships  ;  still  they, 
like  all  other  Whigs  here,  vote  on  the  record  that  the  war  was 
unnecessarily  and  unconstitution^ly  commenced  by  the  Presi- 
dent. And  even  Gen.  Taylor  himself,  the  noblest  Roman  of 
them  all,  has  declared  that,  as  a  citizen,  and  particularly  as  a 
soldier,  it  is  sufficient  for  him  to  know  that  his  country  is  at 
war  with  a  foreign  nation,  to  do  all  in  his  power  to  bring  it  to 
a  speedy  and  honorable  termination,  by  the  most  vigorous  and 
energetic  operations,  without  inquiring  about  its  justice,  or 
anything  else  connected  vrith  it. 

Mr.  Speaker,  let  our  Democratic  friends  be  comforted  with 
the  assurance  that  we  are  content  with  our  position,  content 
with  our  company,  and  content  v.'ith  our  candidate  ;  and  that 
although  they,  in  their  generous  sympathy,  think  we  ought  to 
be  miserable,  we  really  are  not,  and  that  they  may  dismiss  the 
great  anxiety  they  have  on  o?;r  account. 

Mr.  Lincoln  concluded  with  some  allusions  to  the  then  divid- 
ed condition  of  the  New  York  Democracy. 

This  session  of  Congress  came  to  a  close  on  the  14th  day  of 
August.  The  chief  points  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Congressional 
record,  thus  far,  have  been  noticed,  and  his  principal  speeches 
given  at  length.  He  stood  firmly  by  the  side  of  John  Quincy 
Adams,  in  favor  of  the  unrestricted  right  of  petition,  as  will 
be  seen  by  his  vote,  among  others,  against  laying  on  the  table 
a  petition  presented  by  Caleb  B.  Smith  (December  27,  1847) 
praying  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  the  slave-trade  in  the 
District  of  Columbia.  He  favored  a  liberal  policy  toward 
the  people  in  disposing  of  the   public   lands,  as  indicated  by 


LIFE    OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  113 

his  imperfectly  reported  remarks  (May  11,  1848),  at  the  time 
of  the  passage  of  the  bill  admitting  Wisconsin  into  the  Union 
as  a  State.  He  was  careful  to  scrutinize  particular  claims,  to 
satisfy  which  he  was  asked  to  vote  for  an  appropriation,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  proposition  to  pay  the  Texas  volunteers  for 
lost  horses  (May  4,  1848).  All  his  acts  show  a  purpose  to 
do  his  duty  to  the  country,  no  less  than  to  his  immediate  con- 
stituents, v/ithout  fear  or  favor. 

After  the  session  closed,  Mr.  Lincoln  made  a  visit  to  New  En<z- 
laud,  where  he  delivered  some  effective  campaign  speeches, 
which  were  enthusiastically  received  by  his  large  audiences,  as 
appears  from  the  reports  in  the  journals  of  those  days,  and  as 
will  be  remembered  by  thousands.  Plis  time,  however,  was 
chiefly  given,  during  the  Congressional  recess,  to  the  canvass 
in  the  West,  where,  through  the  personal  strength  of  Mr. 
Cass  as  a  North-western  man,  the  contest  was  more  severe  and 
exciting  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  country.  The  final 
triumph  of  Gen.  Taylor,  over  all  the  odds  against  him,  did 
much  to  counterbalance,  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  mind,  the  disheart- 
ening defeat  of  four  years  previous.  As  before  stated,  he  had 
declined  to  be  a  candidate  for  re-election  to  Congress,  yet  he 
had  the  satisfaction  of  aiding  to  secure,  in  his  own  district,  a 
majority  of  1,500  for  the  Whig  Presidential  candidates. 

Mr.  Lincoln  again  took  his  seat  in  the  House  in  December, 
on  the  reassembling  of  the  thirtieth  Congress  for  its  second 
session.  Coming  between  the  Presidential  election,  which 
had  effected  a  political  revolution,  and  the  inauguration  of  the 
new  Government,  this  session  was  generally  a  quiet  one,  passing 
away  without  any  very  important  measures  of  general  legisla- 
tion being  acted  upon.  A  calm  had  followed  the  recent 
storms.  There  were,  indeed,  certain  movements  in  regard  to 
slavery  and  the  slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  which 
produced  some  temporary  excitement,  but  resulted  in  no  seri- 
ous commotion.  On  the  21st  of  December,  Mr.  Gott,  a  repre- 
sentative from  New  York,  introduced  a  resolution,  accompanied 
by  a  strong  preamble  instructing  the  Committee  on  the  District 
of  Columbia  to  report  a  bill  prohibiting  the  slave-trade  in  the 
District.     The  language  used  was  as  follows  : 


114  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Whereas,  The  traffic  now  prosecuted  in  this  metropolis  of 
the  Republic  in  human  beings,  as  chattels,  is  contrary  to  natural 
justice  and  the  fundamental  principles  of  our  political  system, 
and  is  notoriously  a  reproach  to  our  country  throughout  Chris- 
tendom, and  a  serious  hindrance  to  the  progress  of  republican 
liberty  among  the  nations  of  the  earth  :  Therefore, 

Rcsohcd,  That  the  Committee  for  the  District  of  Columbia 
be  instructed  to  report  a  bill,  as  soon  as  practicable,  prohibit- 
ing the  slave-trade  in  said  District. 

Mr.  Haralson,  of  Georgia,  moved  to  lay  the  same  on  the 
table,  and  the  yeas  and  nays  were  taken  on  his  motion.  Mr. 
Lincoln,  Joseph  11.  Ingersoll,  Richard  W.  Thompson,  and 
George  G.  Dunn,  were  nearly  or  quite  the  only  Noi-thern 
Whigs  who  voted  in  the  affirmative.  The  motion  was  lost, 
and  the  resolution,  under  pressure  of  the  previous  question,  was 
adopted,  ninety-eight  to  eighty-eight,  Mr.  Lincoln  voting  in 
the  negative.  A  motion  to  reconsider  this  vote  came  up  for 
action  on  the  27th  of  the  same  month.  A  motion  to  lay 
on  the  table  the  motion  to  reconsider  having  been  lost, 
(yeas  58,  nays  107 — Mr.  Lincoln  voting  in  the  negative), 
the  subject  was  postponed  until  the  10th  of  January.  At 
that  date,  Mr.  Lincoln  read  a  substitute  which  he  proposed 
to  offer  for  the  resolution,  in  ease  of  a  reconsideration. 
This  substitute  contained  the  form  of  a  bill  enaetinir  that 
no  person  not  already  within  the  District  should  be  held  in 
slavery  therein,  and  providing  for  the  gradual  emancipation  of 
the  slaves  already  within  the  District,  with  compensation  to  the 
owners,  if  a  majority  of  the  legal  voters  of  the  District  should 
assent  to  the  act,  at  an  election  to  be  holden  for  the  purpose. 
It  made  an  exception  of  the  right  of  citizens  of  the  slavehold- 
ing  States,  coming  to  the  District  on  public  business,  to  "  be 
attended  into  and  out  of  said  District,  and  while  there,  by  the 
necessary  servants  of  themselves  and  their  fiimilies."  These 
were  the  chief  provisions  of  the  measure  contemplated  by  Mr. 
Lincoln,  which  compared  favorably  with  the  act  prohibiting  the 
slave-trade  in  the  District,  included  among  the  Compromise 
measures  of  1850.  After  rehearsing  the  details  of  his  bill, 
according  to  the  report  in  the  Congressional  Globe — 

Mr.  Lincoln  then  said,  that  he  was  authorized   to  say,  that 


LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  115 

of  about  fifteen  of  the  leading  citizens  of  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia to  whom  this  proposition  had  been  submitted,  there  was 
no  one  but  who  approved  of  the  adoption  of  such  a  proposi' 
tion.  He  did  not  wish  to  be  misunderstood.  He  did  not  know 
whether  or  not  they  would  vote  for  this  bill  on  the  first  Mon- 
day of  April  ;  but  he  repeated,  that  out  of  fifteen  persons  to 
whom  it  had  been  submitted,  he  had  authority  to  say  that 
every  one  of  them  desired  that  some  proposition  like  this 
should  pass. 

A  motion  to  lay  on  the  table  the  proposition  to  reconsider 
was  again  lost,  and  by  a  much  larger  majority  than  before, 
and  the  resolution  was  reconsidered,  119  to  81.  Mr.  Smith, 
of  Indiana,  then  moved  the  following  substitute: 

Resolved^  That  the  Committee  on  the  District  of  Columbia 
be  instructed  to  report,  as  soon  as  practicable,  a  bill  so  amend- 
ing the  present  law  in  this  District,  as  effectually  to  prevent 
the  bringing  of  slaves  into  the  District,  either  for  sale  here,  or 
to  be  sold  and  carried  to  any  place  beyond  the  District. 

Mr.  Meade,  of  Virginia,  offered  the  following  as  an  amend- 
ment to  Mr.  Smith's  amendment : 

And  that  the  said  committee  is  hereby  instructed  to  report 
a  bill  more  effectually  to  enable  owners  to  recover  their  slaves 
escaping  from  one  State  into  another. 

Here,  it  is  observable,  are  two  of  the  propositions  which 
were  ultimately  embraced  in  the  great  Compromise  "  settle- 
ment "  of  1850,  and  these  several  amendments,  proposed  by 
Mr.  Lincoln  and  others,  may  be  termed  the  springs,  in  Con- 
gress, from  which  flowed  a  portion  of  that  celebrated  series  of 
measures. 

The  Speaker  (Mr.  Winthrop)  ruled  Mr.  Meade's  amend- 
ment out  of  order,  and  without  any  decisive  action  thereon, 
the  House  adjourned,  leaving  the  resolution  and  amendments 
to  disappear  among  the  files  of  unfinished  business  on  the 
Speaker's  table. 

An  unsuccessful  attempt  had  previously  been  made  by  Mr. 
Palfrey,  of  Massachusetts,  a  Free-Soil  member  who  refused  to 
vote  for  Mr.  AVinthrop  for  Speaker,  to  introduce  a  bill  "  to 
repeal  all  acts,  or  parts  of  acts,  of  Congress  establishing  or 
maiataining  slavery  or  the  slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Colum- 


116  LIFE    OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

bia."  Mr.  Holmes,  of  Soutli  Carolina,  having  objected,  the 
yeas  and  nays  were  taken  on  granting  the  leave  asked,  and  the 
negative  prevailed  by  thirteen  majority.  The  Northern  Whigs 
in  general,  excepting  Messrs.  Yinton  and  Dunn,  and  many 
Northern  Democrats,  including  John  Wentworth,  David 
Wilmot,  and  J.  J.  Faran,  of  Ohio,  voted  in  the  affirmative. 
Mr.  Lincoln's  name  is  recorded  among  the  nays.  So  sweep- 
ing and  unqualified  a  measure  he  has  ever  been  opposed  to,  as 
he  avowed  himself  to  be  in  1858,  and  has  never  hesitated,  from 
a  fear  of  popular  misapprehension,  to  vote  in  strict  accord- 
ance with  his  own  convictions. 

On  the  31st  of  January,  Mr.  Edwards,  from  the  Committee 
on  the  District  of  Columbia,  reported  a  bill,  suitably  guarded 
in  its  terms,  prohibiting  the  slave-trade  in  the  District.  On  a 
motion  to  lay  this  on  the  table,  Mr.  Lincoln  voted  in  the  neg- 
ative, with  the  friends  of  that  measure,  who  were  a  majority. 
This  bill,  however,  passed  over  among  the  unfinished  business 
of  the  s-ession. 

In  regard  to  the  grant  of  public  lands  to  the  new  States,  to 
aid  in  the  construction  of  railroads  and  canals,  Mr.  Lincoln 
favored  the  interests  of  his  own  constituents,  under  such  rea- 
sonable restrictions  as  the  proper  carrying  out  of  the  purpose 
of  these  grants  required.  This  policy  had  been  strongly 
opposed  by  Mr.  Vinton,  while  one  of  the  bills  of  this  sort  was 
pending.  In  the  brief  remarks  which  Mr.  Lincoln  offisred  in 
reply,  there  are  some  points  (Concfvessional  Globe,  page  53.3) 
worth  quoting  here  : 

In  relation  to  the  f;ict  assumed,  that,  after  a  while,  the  new 
States,  having  got  hold  of  the  public  lands  to  a  certain  extent, 
would  turn  round  and  compel  Congress  to  relinquish  all 
claim  to  them,  he  had  a  word  to  say,  by  way  of  recurring  to 
the  history  of  the  past.  When  was  the  time  to  come  (he 
asked)  when  the  States  in  which  the  public  lands  were  sit- 
uated would  compose  a  majority  of  the  representation  in 
Congress,  or  any  thing  like  it.  A  majority  of  Representa- 
tives would  very  soon  reside  West  of  the  mountains,  he 
admitted;  but  would  they  all  come  from  States  in  which  the 
public  lands  were  situated  ?  They  certainly  would  not ;  for, 
as  these  Western  States  grew  strong  in  Congress,  the  public 
lands  passed   away  from  them,  and  they  got  on  the  other  side 


LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  117 

of  the  question,  and  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  (Mr.  Vinton) 
was  an  example  attesting  that  fact. 

Mr.  Vinton  interrvipted  here  to  say,  that  he  had  stood  upon 
this  question  just  where  he  was  now,  for  fiveand-twenty 
years. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  making  an  argument  for  the  purpose 
of  convicting  the  gentleman  of*  any  impropriety  at  all.  He 
was  speaking  of  a  fact  in  history,  of  which  his  State  was  an 
example.  He  was  referring  to  a  plain  principle  in  the  nature 
of  things.  The  State  of  Ohio  had  now  grown  to  be  a  giant. 
She  had  a  large  delegation  on  that  floor ;  but  was  she  now  in 
favor  of  granting  lands  to  the  new  States  as  she  used  to  be? 
The  NewEngland  States,  New  York,  and  the  Old  Thirteen, 
were  all  rather  quiet  upon  the  subject ;  and  it  was  seen  just 
now  that  a  member  from  one  of  the  new  States  was  the  first 
man  to  rise  up  in  opposition.  And  so  it  would  be  with  the 
history  of  this  question  for  the  future.  There  never  would 
come  a  time  when  the  people  residing  in  the  States  embracing 
the  public  lands  would  have  the  entire  control  of  this  subject ; 
and  so  it  was  a  matter  of  certainty  that  Congress  would  never 
do  more  in  this  respect  than  what  would  be  dictated  by  a  just 
liberality.  The  apprehension,  therefore,  that  the  public  lands 
were  in  danger  of  being  wrested  from  the  General  Govern- 
ment by  the  strength  of  the  delegation  in  Congress  from  the 
new  States,  was  utterly  futile.  There  never  could  be  such  a 
thing.  If  we  take  these  lands  (said  he)  it  will  not  be  without 
your  consent.  We  can  never  outnumber  you.  The  result  is, 
that  all  fear  of  the  new  States  turning  against  the  right  of 
Congress  to  the  public  domain  must  be  effectually  quelled,  as 
those  who  arc  opposed  to  that  interest  must  always  hold  a  vast 
majority  here,  and  they  will  never  surrender  the  whole  or  any 
part  of  the  public  lands  unless  they  themselves  choose  so  to 
do.     This  was  all  he  desired  to  say. 

"With  the  termination  of  the  Thirtieth  Congress,  by  Consti- 
tutional limitation,  on  the  4th  of  March,  18-49,  Mr.  Lincoln's 
career  as  a  Congressman  came  to  a  close.  He  had  refused  to 
be  a  candidate  for  re-election  in  a  district  that  had  given  him 
over  1,500  majority  in  1346,  and  nearly  the  same  to  General 
Taylor,  as  the  Vv^hig  candidate  for  the  Presidency  in  1848.  It 
does  not  appear  that  he  desired  or  would  have  accepted  any 
place  at  Washington  among  the  many  at  the  disposal  of  the 
incoming  Administration,  in  whose  behalf  he  had  so  zealously 
labored.     He  retired   once  more  to  private  life,  renewing  the 


118  lilFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

professional  practice  which  had  heen  temporarily  interrupted 
by  his  public  employment.  The  duties  of  his  responsible 
position  had  been  discharged  with  assiduity  and  with  fearless 
adherence  to  his  convictions  of  right,  under  whatever  circum- 
stances. Scarcely  a  list  of  yeas  and  nays  can  be  found,  for 
either  session,  which  does  not  contain  his  name.  He  was 
never  conveniently  absent  on  any  critical  vote.  He  never 
shrank  from  any  responsibility  which  his  sense  of  justice 
impelled  him  to  take.  His  record,  comparatively  brief  as  it 
is,  is  no  doubtful  one,  and  will  bear  the  closest  scrutiny. 
And  though  one  of  the  youngest,  and  most  inexperienced 
members  of  an  uncommonly  able  and  brilliant  Congress,  he 
would  long  have  been  remembered,  without  the  more  recent 
events  which  have  naturally  followed  upon  his  previous  career, 
as  standing  among  the  first  in  rank  of  the  distinguished 
statesmen  of  the  Thirtieth  Congress. 


LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  119 


CHAPTER  IX. 

PROFESSIONAL    LIFE. — THE    ANTI-NEBRASKA    CANVASS. — 

1849—1854. 

Mr.  Lincoln  in  Retirement  for  Five  Years. — Gen.  Taylor's  Administra- 
tion.— The  Slavery  Agitation  of  1850. — The  Compromise  of  Clay  and 
Fillmore.— The  "Final  Settlement"'  of  1852.— How,  and  by  Whom  it 
■was  Disturbed. —  Violation  of  the  Most  Positive  Pledges. — The  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Bill. — Douglas,  the  Agitator. — Popular  Indignation  and 
Excitement. — Mr.  Lincoln  Takes  Part  in  the  Canvass  of  1864. — Great 
Political  Changes. — The  Anti-Nebraska  Organization. — Springfield 
Resolutions  of  1854. — Results  of  the  Election. — A  Majority  of  Con- 
gressmen and  of  the  Legislature  Anti-Nebraska.-^Election  of  United 
States  Senator  to  Succeed  Gen.  Shields. — Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Trum- 
bull.— A  Magnanimous  Sacrifice. — Mr.  Trumbull  Elected. 

During  the  five  years  immediately  following  the  close  of  his 
Congressional  life,  Mr.  Lincoln  attentively  pursued  his  profes- 
sion of  the  law.  He  took  no  active  part  in  politics  through 
the  period  of  Gen.  Taylor's  administration,  or  in  any  of  the 
exciting  scenes  of  1850.  His  great  political  loader,  Henry 
Clay,  had  resumed  his  place  in  the  Senate,  and  was  earnestly 
striving — one  of  the  last  great  labors  of  his  life — to  avert  the 
dangers  to  the  country,  which  he  believed  to  be  threatened  by 
the  fierce  contests  over  the  question  of  Slavery.  It  was,  with  the 
slave  States,  a  desperate  struggle  to  retain  the  balance  of  power 
in  the  Senate,  by  rejecting  the  application  of  another  free 
State  for  admission,  the  granting  of  which  would  destroy  the 
exact  equilibrium  then  existing.  The  policy  of  admitting  a 
slave  State  along  with  every  new  free  one,  had  substantially 
prevailed  for  years ;  but,  at  this  time,  despite  the  extensive 
additions  of  Mexican  territory,  there  was  no  counterbalancing 
slave    State  ready  for  admission.     The    exclusion    of  slavery 


120  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

from  California  had,  in  fact,  been  rather  a  surprise,  and  this 
application  was  evidently  still  more  an  irritating  circumstance 
for  that  reason.  And  yet  this  movement  was  in  strict  accord- 
ance with  the  policy  of  a  Southern  President.  As  a  final 
result,  the  admission  of  California  was  only  carried  by  means 
of  great  counterbalancing  concessions  on  the  part  of  the  free 
States.  For  months  after,  there  was  much  discontent  in  both 
sections,  in  regard  to  the  compromise  measures  of  1850,  which 
were  defeated  in  Congress,  when  first  acted  upon  as  a  whole, 
but  were  ultimately  carried  in  detail.  It  was  not  until  1852, 
when  both  the  great  parties  of  the  country  agreed  to  accept 
those  measures  as  a  "  final  settlement"  of  the  slavery  contro- 
versy, that  public  sentiment.  North  and  South,  appeared  to 
have  become  fully  reconciled  to  this  adjustment.  The  Admin- 
istration, brought  into  power  by  the  election  of  that  year,  was 
most  thoroughly  and  sacredly  committed  to  the  maintenance 
of  this  settlement,  and  aaainst  the  revival  of  the  Slaverv  a^ita- 
tion  in  any  form.  To  introduce  that  subject,  under  any  pre- 
tense, into  the  halls  of  Congress,  was  an  act  of  wanton  incen- 
diarism, in  utter  disregard  of  most  solemn  pledges,  by  the  aid 
of  which  the  Democratic  party  had  secured  whatever  real  hold 
it  had  upon  popular  confidence.  Such  was  the  state  of  aff'airs 
in  1852,  and  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Pierce's  inauguration  in  1853. 

Mr.  Lincoln,  as  a  private  citizen,  engrossed  with  his  profes- 
sional duties,  had  borne  no  part  in  the  original  controversy, 
and  had  taken  no  share  in  its  settlement.  Whether  preferring 
the  non-intervention  policy  of  President  Taylor,  or  the  com- 
promise course  of  Clay  and  Fillmore,  he  had  undoubtedly 
regarded  the  peace  established,  by  means  of  the  latter,  as  one 
that  ought  by  all  means  to  be  preserved,  and  the  pledges  of 
both  sections  of  the  country,  through  the  action  of  both  the 
national  parties,  as  religiously  binding  upon  every  public  man 
who  had  openly  or  tacitly  assented  thereto.  That  he  approved 
all  the  details  of  this  compromise  is  not  probable.  But  that, 
if  faithfully  adhered  to,  the  practical  results  would  have  been 
satisfactory,  he  was  undoubtedly  convinced. 

The  introduction  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  in  1854,  in 
the  midst  of  this  profound  peace  on  the  slavery  question,  was 


LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  121 

"  the  alarm  of  the  fire-bell  at  night "  vrhieh  startled  Mr.  Lin- 
cola  in  the  repose  of  his  private  life,  and  showed  that  the 
incendiary  had  but  too  successfully  been  at  his  work.  The 
solemn  pledge  of  peace  had  been  violated  by  the  very  men 
who  were  most  forward  in  making  it,  and  most  noisy  in  their 
professions  of  a  desire  that  the  slavery  conflict  should  cease. 
This  new  agitating  movement,  not  only  unsettling  all  the  more 
recent  stipulations  made  for  the  sake  of  peace,  but  even  going 
back  to  destroy  the  only  condition  yet  assailable,  of  the  Com- 
promise of  1820,  and  that  the  very  portion  which  was  agreed 
on  as  a  consideration  to  the  free  States,  was  led  by  the  ambi- 
tious politician  of  Illinois,  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  Not  only 
had  this  unscrupulous  agitator  committed  himself  as  fully  as 
man  could  do  to  the  maintenance  of  peace  on  this  question, 
after  the  compromise  of  1850,  but  he  had,  a  year  previous, 
called  down  vengeance  upon  the  hand  that  ^YOuld  dare  disturb 
the  time-honored  Missouri  compact — that  settlemeut  which 
secured  freedom  "forever"  to  the  soil  embraced  within  the 
limits  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska.  Yet  the  first  hand  raised  for 
the  commission  of  this  incalculable  wrong  was  his  own  ! 
Douglas  himself  reported  the  act  which  violated  that  com- 
pact, and  which  opened  the  new  territories  to  slavery  (pro- 
fessedl}',  not  really,  at  the  option  of  the  people),  contrary  to 
the  spirit  of  all  the  early  legislation,  and  to  the  hitherto  uni- 
form course  of  the  Government.  Even  he  himself  had  recently 
voted  for  the  Wilmot  Proviso  as  applied  to  the  territory 
acquired  from  Mexico,  and  Mr.  Polk  had  approved  the  Oregon 
bill,  containing  the  same  restriction.  Never  was  there  more 
universal  indignation  among  the  people  of  the  North,  and 
many  of  the  more  sagacious  statesmen  of  the  South  clearly 
foresaw  the  mischiefs  that  were  to  follow  from  this  sacrilege. 
Yet  strange  to  say,  this  measure  sundered  and  broke  up  the 
Whig  party  forever,  through  the  action  of  a  large  portion  of 
the  Southern  Whig  Congressmen,  in  joining  the  Democracy  in 
this  act  of  bad  faith,  for  the  sake  of  supposed  sectional  advant- 
age. The  most  intense  excitement  prevailed  throughout  the 
country,  and  the  destruction  of  the  old  party  lines  was  efiect- 
ually  accomplished. 

n 


122  LIFE    OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

These  events  called  forth  Mr.  Lincoln  once  more  to  do  battle 
for  the  right.  He  entered  into  the  canvass  of  1854,  as  one  of 
the  most  active  leaders  of  the  '-Anti-Nebraska "  movement. 
He  addressed  the  people  repeatedly  from  the  stump,  with  all 
his  characteristic  earnestness  and  energy.  He  met  and  cowed 
the  author  of  the  "Nebraska  iniquity,"  in  the  presence  of  the 
masses,  and  powerfully  aided  in  eflfectiug  the  remarkable  polit- 
ical changes  of  that  year  in  Hlinois. 

The  incendiary  act  had  come  to  the  final  vote,  in  the  Senate, 
on  the  26th  day  of  May.  About  the  first  of  August,  Congress 
adjourned.  Douglas  lingered  by  the  way  on  his  return  to  his 
constituents,  and  reached  Chicago  near  the  close  of  that  month. 
Here  he  met  a  storm  of  indignation  from  the  people,  whom  for 
manifesting  their  disapprobation  of  his  conduct,  he  compla- 
cently termed  a  "  mob."  He  had  proposed  to  speak  in  self- 
vindication,  on  the  evening  of  the  first  day  of  September. 
He  was  received  with  the  most  decisive  demonstrations  of 
popular  indignation,  which  he  attempted  to  face  down  with  an 
insufferable  insolence  of  manner,  that  only  tended  to  increase 
the  excitement  against  him.  After  long  perseverance  in  an 
attempt  to  compel  a  hearing,  he  was  forced  to  succumb. 
All  over  the  State  he  early  discovered  the  same  state  of  feeling 
existed  among  a  large  portion  of  his  constituents,  although 
there  was  no  refusal  to  hear  him,  except  in  this  first  unlucky 
eff'ort  to  defy  and  silence  a  crowd  by  bullying  deportment. 
The  popular  rage  gradually  subsided,  but  the  deliberate  senti- 
ment of  the  people  of  Illinois  on  this  subject  has  only  been 
confirmed  and  strengthened  against  him  with  time.  From 
commanding  a  large  majority  of  the  popular  vote,  as  he  had 
done  previously,  his  strength  dwindled  away,  until,  for  years 
past,  he  and  the  party  that  sustained  him,  have  been  in  a  pos- 
itive minority  in  the  State.  The  reader  can  judge  how  much 
this,  to  him,  painful  truth,  had  to  do  with  the  change  of  policy 
adopted  by  him,  in  opposing  the  Lecompton  Constitution,  the 
legitimate  fruit  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  and  substantially 
approved  by  him  in  advance,  in  a  speech  made  in  Springfield, 
in  1857. 

Mr.  Douglas  visited  several  parts  of  the  State,  vainly  attempt- 


LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  123 

ing,  by  ingenious  but  sophistical  addresses  to  the  people  to 
avert  the  impending  revolution.  Mr.  Lincoln  met  him  in 
debate  at  Springfield,  during  the  time  of  the  State  Fair,  early 
in  October,  1854,  and  the  encounter  was  a  memorable  one  in 
the  great  campaign  then  in  progress.  They  met  a  few  days  later 
at  Peoria,  where  Mr.  Douglas  had  no  better  fortune.  Subse- 
quently to  that  encounter,  he  showed  a  decided  preference  for 
speaking  at  other  times  and  places  than  Mr.  Lincoln. 

The  Anti-Nebraska  organization,  formed  at  Springfield  in 
October  of  that  year,  and  embracing  men  of  all  parties  opposed 
to  the  reckless  measures  which  had  introduced  the  most 
violent  agitation  in  regard  to  slavery  ever  known  in  the  coun- 
try, was  the  beginning  from  which  the  Republican  party  in 
Illinois  was  to  be  matured.  Among  the  resolutions  at  that 
time  adopted,  after  setting  forth  in  a  preamble  that  a  majority 
of  Congress  had  deliberately  and  wantonly  re-opened  the  con- 
troversy respecting  the  extension  of  slavery  under  our  national 
jurisdiction,  which  a  majority  of  the  people  had  understood  to 
be  closed  forever  by  the  successive  compromises  of  1820  and 
1850,  were  the  following : 

Resolved^  That  the  doctrine  afiirmed  by  the  Nebraska  Bill, 
and  gilded  over  by  its  advocates  with  the  specious  phrases  of 
non-intervention  and  popular  sovereignty,  is  really  and  clearly 
a  complete  surrender  of  all  the  ground  hitherto  asserted  and 
maintained  by  the  Federal  Government,  with  respect  to  the 
limitation  of  slavery,  is  a  plain  confession  of  the  right  of  the 
slaveholder  to  transfer  his  human  chattels  to  any  part  of  the 
public  domain,  and  there  hold  them  as  slaves  as  long  as  inclin- 
ation or  interest  may  dictate ;  and  that  this  is  an  attempt 
totally  to  reverse  the  doctrine  hitherto  uniformly,  held  by 
statesmen  and  jurists,  that  slavery  is  the  creature  of  local  and 
State  law,  and  to  make  it  a  national  institution. 

Resolved,  That  as  freedom  is  national  and  slavery  sectional  and 
local,  the  absence  of  all  law  upon  the  subject  of  slavery  pre- 
sumes the  existence  of  a  state  of  freedom  alone,  while  slavery 
exists  only  by  virtue  of  positive  law. 

Resolved,  That  we  heartily  approve  the  course  of  the  freemen 
of  Connecticut,  Vermont,  Iowa,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Wisconsin, 
New  York,  Michigan  and  Maine,  postponing  or  disregarding 
their  minor  difi'erence  of  opinion  or  preferences,  and  acting 
together  cordially  and  trustingly  in  the  same  cause  of  freedom, 


124  LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN, 

of  free  labor,  and  free  soil,  and  we  commend  their  spirit  to  the 
freemen  of  this  and  other  States,  exliorting  each  to  re- 
nounce his  party  -whenever  and  wherever  that  party  proves 
unfaithful  to  human  freedom. 

In  behalf  of  these  principles,  Mr.  Lincoln  had  already 
taken  the  stump,  and  for  them  he  did  valiant  service  in  various 
pai'ts  of  the  State. 

This  new  party  was  organized  late  in  the  season,  and  the 
canvass  for  Treasurer,  the  only  State  officer  to  be  elected,  was 
but  imperfectly  made.  In  some  parts  of  the  State,  there  was 
even  no  distribution  of  tickets  containing  the  name  of  this 
candidate.  The  result,  even  under  these  unfavorable  circum- 
stances, and  in  spite  of  the  overwhelming  Democratic  prepond- 
erance during  the  previous  twenty-five  years,  was  extremely 
close,  and  for  a  long  time  doubtful.  The  Democratic  candidate 
barely  escaped  defeat.  This  was  the  last  election  in  which 
the  party  sustaining  Douglas  has  had  even  the  appearance  of 
a  majority  in  Illinois.  The  revolution  loas  now  substantially 
accomplished.  From  that  day  to  the  present  the  Opposition 
party  has  been  steadily  gaining  in  strength,  and  that  of  Mr. 
Douglas  sinking  more  and  more  into  a  hopeless  minority. 
Even  the  temporary  reaction,  under  the  Anti-Lecompton  flag, 
was  more  apparent  than  real. 

Of  the  nine  Congressional  Districts,  the  Opposition  now, 
for  the  first  time,  carried  a  majority,  electing  five  members, 
and  the  Democrats  four.  The  Legislature  would  have  been 
completely  revolutionized,  in  both  branches,  with  little  doubt, 
but  for  the  large  number  of  Democrats  "  holding  over,"  as 
members  of  the  new  Senate.  In  the  House,  the  Anti-Nebraska 
representatives  numbered  forty,  and  the  Democratic  thirty- 
five.  In  the  Senate,  there  were  seventeen  elected  as  Demo- 
crats, and  eight  as  Opposition  men.  Of  the  former,  however, 
there  were  three,  elected  two  years  previously,  who  repudiated 
Douglas  and  his  policy,  and  inclined  to  the  Opposition. 
These  were  Norman  B.  Judd,  J.  M.  Palmer,  and  B.  C.  Cook. 
Reckoning  these  with  the  Anti-Nebraska  side,  the  Senate 
stood,    Opposition    eleven,    Democrats     fourteen — leaving     a 


LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  125 

majority  against  the  Douglas  Democracy  of  two  on  joint 
ballot. 

A  United  States  Senator,  to  succeed  Gen.  Shields  on  the 
4th  of  March,  1855,  was  to  be  chosen  by  this  Legislature. 
For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Illinois,  the  election  of  au 
Opposition  Senator  wai?  within  the  reach  of  possibility.  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  the  first  choice  of  the  great  mass  of  the  Opposi- 
tion for  this  position.  From  his  prominence,  for  a  long  time, 
in  the  old  Whig  party,  it  was  but  natural  that  a  portion  of 
the  members  having  Democratic  antecedents  who  had  come 
into  the  new  organization,  should  hesitate  to  give  Mr.  Lin- 
coln their  votes.  Tliis  was  especially  true  of  the  three 
Senators  above  named  as  holding  over,  they  having  been 
elected  as  regular  Democrats.  Under  this  state  of  things,  it 
was  manifest,  after  a  few  ballots,  that,  with  the  close  vote  in 
joint  convention  the  election  of  a  Democrat,  not  to  be  cer- 
tainly relied  on  as  an  opponent  of  the  Douglas  policy,  and  at 
best  uncommitted  in  regard  to  the  new  j)arty  organization, 
might  be  the  result  of  adhering  to  Mr.  Lincoln.  He,  accord- 
ingly, with  the  self-sacrificing  disposition  which  had  always 
characterized  him,  promptly  appealed  to  his  Whig  friends  to 
go  over  in  a  solid  body  to  Mr.  Trumbull,  a  man  of  Demo- 
cratic antecedents,  who  could  command  the  full  vote  of  the 
Anti-Nebraska  Democrats.  By  these  earnest  and  disinterested 
efforts,  the  difficult  task  was  accomplished,  great  as  was  the 
sacrifice  of  personal  feeling  which  it  cost  the  devoted  friends 
of  Mr.  Lincoln.  On  the  part  of  himself  and  them,  it  involved 
the  exercise  of  a  degree  of  self-denial  and  magnanimity,  as 
rare  as  it  was  noble.  It  demonstrated  their  honest  attachment 
to  the  great  cause  for  which  old  party  lines  had  been  aban- 
doned, and  their  sincere  purpose  of  thoroughly  ignoring  all 
differences  founded  on  mere  partizan  prejudice.  It  cemented 
the  union  of  these  Anti-Nebraska  elements,  and  consolidated 
the  new  organization  into  a  permanent  party. 

The  joint  convention  for  electing  a  United  States  Senator 
met  on  the  8th  day  of  February,  1855.  On  the  first  ballot, 
Jamea   Shields,    then    Senator,    who    had    been    induced    by 


126  LIFE    OP   ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 

Douglas,  against  liis  ovva  better  judgment,  to  vote  for  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  received  41  votes,  and  three  other 
Democrats  had  one  vote  each.  Abraham  Lincoln  had  45 
votes,  Lyman  Trumbull  5,  Mr.  Koerner  2,  and  there  were 
three  other  scattering  votes.  On  the  seventh  ballot,  the 
Democratic  vote  was  concentrated  upon  Gov.  Matteson,  with 
two  exceptions,  and  he  received  also  the  votes  of  two  Anti- 
Nebraska  Democrats,  making  44  in  all.  On  the  tenth  ballot, 
Mr.  Trumbull  was  elected,  in  the  way  just  explained,  receiving 
51  votes  and  Mr.  Matteson  47.  Every  Whig  vote  but  one 
was  given  to  Mr.  Trumbull. 

Among  the  speeches  delivered  by  Mr.  Lincoln  in  this 
memorable  campaign,  which  gave  the  Republicans  an  able 
Senator  from  Illinois,  and  which  effectually  accomplished  the 
overthrow  of  the  Democracy  in  that  State,  perhaps  the  ablest 
and  most  characteristic  was  the  one  delivered  at  Peoria, 
important  portions  of  which  were  quoted  by  him  in  the 
canvass  with  Douglas,  four  years  later. 


LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  127 


CHAPTER  X. 

POLITICAL   MOVEMENTS    IN   1856    AND   '57. 

The  Republican  Party  Organized. — Their  Platform  adopted  at  Blooming- 
ton. — The  Canvass  of  185G. — Mr.  Lincoln  Sustains  Fremont  and  Day- 
ton.— His  Active  Labors  on  the  Stump. — Col.  Bissell  Elected  Governor 
of  Illinois. — Mr.  Buchanan  Inaugurated. — His  Kansas  Policy. — Mr, 
Douglas  Committed  to  it  in  June,  1857. — John  Calhoun  His  Special 
Friend. — The  Springfield  Speech  of  Douglas. — Mr.  Lincoln's  Reply. 

Mr.  Lincoln  took  an  active  part  in  the  formation  of  the 
Republican  party  as  such.  The  State  convention  of  that 
organization  which  met  at  Bloomington,  on  the  29th  of  May, 
1856,  sent  delegates  to  the  Philadelphia  Convention  of  that 
year,  held  for  the  nomination  of  Presidential  candidates. 
The  resolutions  of  the  Bloomington  Convention,  in  place  of 
which  Mr.  Douglas  produced  an  entirely  different  series  on  the 
ptump,  in  1858,  are  subjoined  in  full  : 

Whereas,  The  present  Administration  has  prostituted  its 
powers,  and  devoted  all  its  energies  to  the  propagation  of 
slavery,  and  to  its  extension  into  Territories  heretofore  dedi- 
cated to  freedom,  against  the  known  wishes  of  the  people  of  such 
Territories,  to  the  suppression  of  the  freedom  of  speech,  and 
of  the  press;  and  to  the  revival  of  the  odious  doctrine  of  con- 
structive treason,  which  has  always  been  the  resort  of  tyrants, 
and  their  most  powerful  engine  of  injustice  and  oppression  ; 
and  whereas,  we  are  convinced  that  an  effort  is  making  to 
subvert  the  principles,  and  ultimately  to  change  the  form  of 
our  Government,  and  which  it  becomes  all  patriots,  all  who 
love  their  country,  and  the  cause  of  human  freedom,  to  resist; 
therefore 

ResoIveJ,  That  foregoing  all  former  differences  of  opinion 
upon  other  questions,  we  pledge  ourselves  to  unite  in  opposition 
to  the  present  Administration,  and  to  the  party  which  upholds 
and  supports  it,  and  to  u.se  all  honorable  and  Constitutional 


128  LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

means  to  wrest  the  government  from  the  unworthy  hands 
which  now  control  it,  and  to  bring  it  back  in  its  administration 
to  the  principles  and  practices  of  Washington,  Jefferson  and 
their  great  and  good  compatriots  of  the  Revolution. 

Resolved,  That  we  hold,  in  accordance  with  the  opinions 
and  practices  of  all  the  great  statesmen  of  all  parties,  for  the 
first  sixty  years  of  the  administration  of  the  Government,  that, 
under  the  Constitution,  Congress  possesses  full  power  to  pro- 
hibit slavery  in  the  Territories  ;  and  that  while  we  will  main- 
tain all  Constitutional  rights  of  the  South,  we  also  hold  that 
justice,  humanity,  the  principles  of  freedom  as  expressed  in 
our  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  our  National  Constitu- 
tion, and  the  purity  and  perpetuity  of  our  Government  require 
that  that  power  should  be  exerted,  to  prevent  the  extension  of 
slavery  into  Territories  hei'etofore  free. 

Resolved,  That  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  was 
unwise,  unjust  and  injurious  ;  in  open  and  aggravated  viola- 
tion of  the  plighted  faith  of  the  States,  and  that  the  attempt 
of  the  present  Administration  to  force  slavery  into  Kansas 
against  the  known  wishes  of  the  legal  voters  of  that  Territory, 
is  an  arbitrary  and  tyrannous  violation  of  the  rights  of  the 
people  to  govern  themselves,  and  that  we  will  strive  by  all 
Constitutional  means,  to  secure  to  Kansas  and  Nebraska  the 
legal  guaranty  against  slavery,  of  which  they  were  deprived,  at 
the  cost  of  the  violation  of  the  plighted  faith  of  the  nation. 

Resolved,  That  we  are  devoted  to  the  Union,  and  will,  to 
the  last  extremity,  defend  it  against  the  efforts  now  being  made 
by  the  Disunionists  of  this  Administration  to  compass  its  dis- 
solution ;  and  that  we  will  support  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  in  all  its  provisions,  regarding  it  as  the  sacred 
bond  of  our  Union,  and  the  only  safeguard  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  rights  of  ourselves  and  our  posterity. 

Resolved,  That  we  are  in  favor  of  the  immediate  admission 
of  Kansas  as  a  member  of  this  Confederacy,  under  the  Consti- 
tution adopted  by  the  people  of  said  Territory. 

Resolved,  That  the  spirit  of  our  institutions,  as  well  as  the 
Constitution  of  our  country,  guarantees  the  liberty  of  con- 
science as  well  as  political  freedom,  and  that  we  will  proscribe 
no  one  by  legislation  or  otherwise,  on  account  of  religious 
opinions,  or  in  consequence  of  place  of  birth. 

Resolved,  That  in  Lyman  Trumbull,  our  distinguished  Sen- 
ator, the  people  of  Illinois  have  an  able  and  consistent  expo- 
nent of  their  principles,  and  that  his  course  in  the  Senate 
meets  with  our  unqualified  approbation. 


LIFE  OF  ai;uaiia:>i   mncoln.  129 

"Witli  this  creed,  and  the  Philadelphia  platform,  subsequently 
adopted,  the  Republicans  of  Illinois  went  into  the  canvass  of 
1856.  Mr.  Lincoln  labored  earnestly  during  the  campaign,  sus- 
taining the  nominations  of  Fremont  and  Dayton.  In  the 
State  canvass,  Col.  Wm.  H.  Bissel  received  the  united  support 
of  the  Opposition  for  Governor,  and  was  elected  by  a  decisive 
majority.  On  the  Presidential  candidates,  there  being,  unfor- 
tunately, two  tickets  in  the  field,  the  divided  Opposition  were 
unsuccessful,  although  Fremont,  in  spite  of  the  heavy  Fill- 
more vote  ran  so  closely  upon  Buchanan  that  the  result  was 
for  a  time  in  doubt,  and  only  the  nearly  solid  vote  of 
"  Egypt  '■  decided  the  result  in  favor  of  the  latter.  The 
untiring  exertions  of  Mr.  Lincoln  on  the  stump,  in  enlighten- 
ing the  people  as  to  the  real  issues  involved,  did  much  toward 
securing  this  remarkable  vote. 

Mr.  Buchanan  came  into  power  in  March,  1857,  and  the 
hopes  which  had  been  entertained  of  a  material  change,  under 
his  administration,  of  the  unjust  and  execrable  policy  hitherto 
pursued  toward  Kansas,  were  speedily  dissipated.  After  some 
little  show  of  resistance  at  first,  he  was  soon  found  acting  in 
accordance  with  the  dictates  of  the  extreme  pro-slavery  inter- 
est. A  deep  scheme  was  concocted,  into  the  secrets  of  which 
even  the  Governor  and  Secretary  of  that  Territory  were  not 
admitted,  for  forcing  Kansas  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  State. 
This  plot  began  to  be  suspected,  and  its  existence  more  and 
more  confirmed  by  the  course  of  events,  not  long  after  Mr. 
Buchanan's  inauguration.  The  thin  vail  of  "  bogus  Popular 
Sovereignty,"  with  which  Douglas  had  tried  to  hide  the  naked 
deformity  of  the  act  under  which  Kansas  and  Nebraska  were 
organized,  was  to  be  rent  asunder.  People  were  beginning  to 
look  with  curiosity  for  the  next  evasion  or  artful  afterthought 
by  which  he  would  attempt  to  escape  the  force  of  a  public 
sentiment  which  was  already  rapidly  bearing  him  down,  before 
this  more  complete  exposure  became  inevitable.  This  interest 
in  his  course  was  the  more  lively,  for  the  reason  that  his  Sena- 
torial term  had  nearly  expired,  and  that,  without  some  remark- 
able change  of  aflfars,  or  some  ingenious  device,  the  curse  he 

12 


130  LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

had  himself  pronounced  in  evidence  upon  the  disturber  of  the 
Missouri  compact,  was  to  be  most  signally  realized. 

Meantime,  the  machinery  had  been  put  in  motion  for  a 
Convention  at  Lecompton,  which  was  to  ratify  a  Constitution 
prepared  at  Washington,  under  Administration  auspices,  and 
to  secure  the  great  purpose  intended  by  the  Southern  sup- 
porters of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  scheme.  How  grossly  unjust 
and  unequal  were  the  provisions  of  the  act  calling  this  Con- 
vention, and  how  deliberate  was  its  design  of  excluding  the 
free  State  men  from  any  effectual  voice  in  determining  *'  the 
domestic  institutions  "  of  a  State  in  which  the  party  of  free 
labor  comprised  about  four-fifths  of  the  people,  as  had  already 
been  distinctly  indicated,  need  not  be  here  rehearsed.  To 
Douglas,  at  least,  the  real  facts  were  not  unknown.  That 
these  iniquities  must  all  ultimately  come  out,  and  receive  the 
condemnation  of  the  people,  he  can  not  have  seriously  ques- 
tioned. Yet,  in  spite  of  these  facts,  it  is  undeniably  true,  and 
is  clearly  of  record,  that  he  committed  himself  in  advance — 
not  at  all  uncertain,  most  assuredly,  as  to  what  it  was  sub- 
stantially to  be — in  favor  of  the  Lecompton  Constitution. 
John  Calhoun,  the  chosen  instrument  of  the  Administration 
for  carrying  out  its  plot  to  defeat  "Popular  Sovereignty"  in 
Kansas,  was  one  of  the  special  friends  of  Douglas,  and  under- 
stood to  share  his  intimate  confidence.  And  when,  in  his 
speech  at  Springfield,  in  June,  1857,  Mr.  Douglas  substan- 
tially indorsed  the  Lecompton  Convention  and  its  doings, 
beforehand,  no  one  had  any  reason  to  doubt  that  he  intended 
fully  to  sustain  the  Administration  in  attempting  to  force  a 
slave  Constitution  on  the  people  of  Kansas — a  process  for 
which  his  "  organic  act"  had  prepared  the  way.  In  the  course 
of  his  remarks  on  that  occasion,  he  said  : 

Kansas  is  about  to  speak  for  herself  through  her  delegates 
assembled  in  convention  to  form  a  Constitution,  preparatory 
to  her  admission  into  the  Union  on  an  equal  footing  with  the 
original  States.  Peace  and  prosperity  now  prevail  throughout 
her  borders.  The  law  under  which  her  delegates  are  about  to 
be  elected  is  believed  to  be  just  and  fair  in  all  its  objects  and 
provisions.     There  is  every  reason   to  hope  and  believe  that 


LIFE   OP   ABRAHAai    LINCOLN.  131 

the  law  will  be  fairly  interpreted  and  impartially  executed,  so 
as  to  insure  to  every  bona  fide  inhabitant  the  free  and  quiet 
exercise  of  the  elective  franchise.  If  any  portion  of  the 
inhabitants,  acting  under  the  advice  of  political  leaders  iu 
distant  States,  shall  choose  to  absent  themselves  from  the  polls, 
and  withhold  their  votes,  with  a  view  of  leaving  the  free 
State  Democrats  in  a  minority,  and  thus  securing  a  pro- 
slavery  Constitution  in  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  a  majority 
of  the  people  living  under  it,  let  the  responsibility  rest  on 
those  who,  for  partizan  purposes,  will  sacrifice  the  principles 
they  profess  to  cherish  and  promote.  Upon  them  and  upon 
the  political  party  for  xoliose  benefit  and  under  the  direction 
of  toliose  leaders  they  act,  let  the  blame  be  visited  of  fastening 
upon  the  people  of  a  new  State  institutions  repugnant  to  their 
feelings  and  in  violation  of  their  wishes. 

Words  could  not  have  more  positively  indicated  his  purpose 
of  sustaining  all  the  acts  of  the  Lecompton  Convention,  or 
that  he  anticipated  the  formation  of  a  pro-slavery  Constitution, 
for  which  he  meant  to  charsre  the  blame  upon  the  free  State 
men  and  upon  the  Republican  party  in  general,  anticipating 
then  that  the  non-voting  policy  would  be  adopted.  In  a  sub- 
sequent part  of  this  same  speech,  he  still  more  fully  and  unre- 
servedly indorsed  the  act  providing  for  the  Lecompton  Con- 
stitutional Convention,  committing  himself  to  all  its  legitimate 
consequences.     He  said : 

The  present  election  law  in  Kansas  is  acknowledged  to  be 
fair  and  just — the  rights  of  the  voters  are  clearly  defined — 
and  the  exercise  of  those  rights  will  be  efiiciently  and  scru- 
pulously protected.  Hence,  if  the  majority  of  the  people  of 
Kansas  desire  to  have  it  a  free  State  (and  we  are  told  by 
the  Republican  party  that  nine-tenths  of  the  people  of  that 
Territory  are  free  State  men),  thn-e  is  no  obstacle  in  the  xoay 
of  bringing  Kansas  into  the  Union  as  a  free  State,  by  the  votes 
and  voice  of  her  oion  people,  and  in  conformity  with  the  great 
principles  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act ;  provided  all  the  free 
State  men  will  go  to  the  polls,  and  vote  their  principles  in 
accordance  with  their  professions.  If  such  is  not  the  result, 
let  the  consequences  be  visited  upon  the  heads  of  those  whose 
policy  it  is  to  produce  strife,  anarchy,  and  bloodshed  in  Kan- 
sas, that  their  party  may  profit  by  slavery  agitation  in  the 
northern  States  of  this  Union.  That  the  Democrats  in  Kan- 
sas will  perform  their  duty  fearlessly  and  nobly,  according  to 


132  LIFE    OP    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

the  principles  they  cherish,  I  have  no  doubt,  and  that  the 
result  of  the  struggle  ■will  be  such  as  will  gladden  the  heart 
and  strengthen  the  hopes  of  every  friend  of  the  Union,  I  have 
entire  confidence. 

The  Lecompton  Convention  was  to  settle  the  whole  Kansas 
controversy,  "  peacefully  and  satisfactorily,"  according  to  the 
professed  faith  of  Mr.  Douglas.  He  fully  indorsed  it  in  its 
origin,  and  committed  himself  to  abide  by  its  results,  which 
were  accomplished  through  the  instrumentality  of  one  of  his 
warmest  personal  friends.  And  what  these  results  would  be, 
in  his  opinion,  he  clearly  foreshadowed  in  the  extracts  above 
given  from  his  speech.  He  expected  a  pro-slavery  Constitu- 
tion, and  he  repeatedly  approved,  without  any  reservation,  the 
convention-act  which,  by  its  regular  carrying-out,  accomplished 
that  expectation.  He  declared,  substantially,  that  the  will  of 
the  people  could  be  fully  and  fairly  expressed  in  forming  a 
Constitution  at  Lecompton,  under  that  act ;  and  that  if  they 
did  not  obtain  such  a  Constitution  as  they  desired,  it  would 
be  their  own  fault — plainly  implying  that  they  must  submit  to 
such  action  as  should  be  taken.  He  left  himself  scarcely  a 
loophole  of  retreat,  whatever  might  come  of  the  Lecompton 
Convention. 

In  the  same  speech  Mr.  Douglas  spoke  at  length  in  indorse- 
ment of  the  dogmas  embraced  in  what  is  popularly  called  the 
Drcd  Scott  decision,  and  particularly  of  the  one  which  denies 
the  power  of  Congress  to  exclude  slavery  from  the  Territories. 
He  tried,  also,  to  convey  the  impression  that  the  Eepublican 
party  was  in  favor  of  negro  equality,  because  dissenting  in 
general  to  a  judicial  opinion,  of  which  one  of  the  details  is  a 
denial  to  the  negro  race  of  any  legal  redress  for  wrongs  in  the 
higher  courts. 

A  third  subject  of  this  speech  was  the  Utah  rebellion,  which 
Mr.  Douglas  proposed  to  end  by  annulling  the  act  establishing 
the  Territory  of  LTtah. 

To  this  speech  Mr.  Lincoln  replied  at  Springfield,  two  weeks 
later.  It  is  noticeable  that  the  first  two  of  the  topics  of  Mr. 
Douglas's  speech  formed  leading  subjects  of  the  great  canvass 
of  the  next  year.     It  is  not  impossible  that  this  prompt  joining 


LIFE   Off   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  133 

of  issues  may  have  had  its  influence  in  inducing  Mr.  Douglas 
so  completely  to  change  front,  before  another  twelve-month 
had  passed.  In  any  event,  these  two  speeches  have  a  rare 
interest,  from  their  immediate  relations  to  the  coming  contest, 
of  which  they  are  properly  the  prelude.  We  give  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's remarks  at  length : 

SPEECH  OF  MK.  LINCOLN,  IN    REPLY  TO  MR.  DOUGLAS,  ON  KANSAS, 

THE  DRED  SCOTT  DECISION,  AND  THE  UTAH  QUESTION. 

[Delivered  at  Springfield^  111.,  June  26,  1857.) 

Fellow-Citizens  : — I  am  here,  to-night,  partly  by  the  invi- 
tation of  some  of  you,  and  partly  by  my  own  inclination.  Two 
weeks  ago  Judge  Douglas  spoke  hei'e,  on  the  several  subjects 
of  Kansas,  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  and  Utah.  I  listened  to 
the  speech  at  the  time,  and  have  read  the  report  of  it  since. 
It  was  intended  to  controvert  opinions  which  I  think  just,  and 
to  assail  (politically,  not  personally)  those  men  who,  in  com- 
mon with  me,  entertain  those  opinions.  For  this  reason  I 
wished  then,  and  still  wish  to  make  some  answer  to  it,  which  I 
now  take  the  opportunity  of  doing. 

I  begin  with  Utah.  If  it  prove  to  be  true,  as  is  probable, 
that  the  people  of  Utah  are  in  open  rebellion  against  the  United 
States,  then  Judge  Douglas  is  in  favor  of  repealing  their  terri- 
torial organization,  and  attaching  them  to  the  adjoining  States 
for  judicial  purposes.  I  say,  too,  if  they  are  in  rebellion,  they 
ought  to  be  somehow  coerced  to  obedience  ;  and  I  am  not  now 
prepared  to  admit  or  deny,  that  the  Judge's  mode  of  coercing 
them  is  not  as  good  as  any.  The  Republicans  can  fall  in  with 
it,  without  taking  back  anything  they  have  ever  said.  To  be 
sure,  it  would  be  a  considerable  backing  down  by  Judge  Doug- 
las, from  his  much  vaunted  doctrine  of  self-government  for 
the  territories ;  but  this  is  only  additional  proof  of  what 
was  very  plain  from  the  beginning,  that  that  doctrine  was  a 
mere  deceitful  pretense  for  the  benefit  of  slavery.  Those  who 
could  not  see  that  much  iu  the  Nebraska  act  itself,  which 
forced  Governors,  and  Secretaries,  and  Judges  on  the  people 
of  the  territories,  without  their  choice  or  consent,  could  not  be 
made  to  see,  though  one  should  rise  from  the  dead. 

But  in  all  this,  it  is  very  plain  the  Judge  evades  the  only 
question  the  Republicans  have  ever  pressed  upon  the  Democ- 
racy in  regard  to  Utah.  That  question  the  Judge  well  knew 
to  be  this :  "  If  the  people  of  Utah  shall  peacefully  form  a 
State  Constitution  tolerating  polygamy,  will  the  Democracy 
admit  them  into  the  Union?"  There  is  nothing  in  the  Uni- 
ted States  Constitution  or  law  against  polygamy ;  and  why  is  it 


134  LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

not  a  part  of  the  Judge's  "sacred  right  of  self-government" 
for  the  people  to  have  it,  or  rather  to  keep  it,  if  they  choose  ? 
These  questions,  so  far  as  I  know,  the  Judge  never  answers. 
It  might  involve  the  Democracy  to  answer  them  either  way, 
and  they  go  unanswered. 

As  to  Kansas.  The  substance  of  the  Judge's  speech  on 
Kansas  is  an  effort  to  put  the  Free  State  men  in  the  wrong  for 
not  voting  at  the  election  of  delegates  to  the  Constitutional 
Convention.  He  says :  "  There  is  every  reason  to  hope  and 
believe  that  the  law  will  be  fairly  interpreted  and  impartially 
executed,  so  as  to  insure  to  every  bona  fide  inhabitant  the  free 
and  quiet  exercise  of  the  elective  franchise." 

It  appears  extraordinary  that  Judge  Douglas  should  make 
such  a  statement.  He  knows  that,  by  the  law,  no  one  can  vote 
who  has  not  been  registered  ;  and  he  knows  that  the  Free  State 
men  place  their  refusal  to  vote  on  the  ground  that  but  few  of 
them  have  been  registered.  It  is  possible  this  is  not  true,  but 
Judge  Douglas  knows  it  is  asserted  to  be  true  in  letters,  news- 
papers and  public  speeches,  and  borne  by  every  mail,  and 
blown  by  every  breeze  to  the  eyes  and  ears  of  the  world.  He 
knows  it  is  boldly  declared,  that  the  people  of  many  whole 
counties,  and  many  whole  neighborhoods  in  others,  are  left 
unregistered ;  yet,  he  does  not  venture  to  contradict  the  decla- 
ration, or  to  point  out  how  they  can  vote  without  being  regis- 
tered;  but  he  just  slips  along,  not  seeming  to  know  there  is 
any  such  question  of  fact,  and  complacently  declares,  "  There 
is  every  reason  to  hope  and  believe  that  the  law  will  be  fairly 
and  impartially  executed,  so  as  to  insure  to  every  bona  fide 
inhabitant  the  free  and  quiet  exercise  of  the  elective  franchise." 

I  readily  agree  that  if  all  had  a  chance  to  vote,  they  ought 
to  have  voted.  If,  on  the  contrary,  as  they  allege,  and  Judge 
Douglas  ventures  not  particularly  to  contradict,  few  only  of  the 
free  State  men  had  a  chance  to  vote,  they  were  perfectly  right 
in  staying  from  the  polls  in  a  body. 

By  the  way,  since  the  Judge  spoke,  the  Kansas  election  has 
come  off.  The  Judge  expressed  his  confidence  that  all  the 
Democrats  in  Kansas  would  do  their  duty — including  "free 
State  Democrats  "  of  course.  The  returns  received  liere,  as 
yet,  are  very  incomplete  ;  but,  so  far  as  they  go,  they  indicate 
that  only  about  one-sixth  of  the  registered  voters,  have  really 
voted  ;  and  this  too,  when  not  more,  perhaps,  than  one-half  of 
the  rightful  voters  have  been  registered,  thus  showing  the 
thing  to  have  been  altogether  the  most  exquisite  farce  ever 
enacted.  I  am  watching  with  considerable  interest,  to  ascer- 
tain what  figure  "  the  free  State  Democrats  "  cut  in  the  con- 
cern.    Of  course  they  voted — all  Democrats  do  their  duty — 


LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  135 

and  of  course  they  did  not  vote  for  slave  State  candidates. 
We  soon  shall  know  how  many  delegates  they  elected,  how 
many  candidates  they  had  pledged  to  a  free  State,  and  how 
many  votes  were  cast  for  them. 

Allow  me  to  barely  whisper  my  suspicion,  that  there  were 
no  such  things  in  Kansas  as  "  free  State  Democrats  " — that 
they  were  altogether  mythical,  good  only  to  figure  in  newspa- 
pers and  speeches  in  the  free  States.  If  there  should  prove 
to  be  one  real,  living  free  State  Democrat  in  Kansas,  I  suggest 
that  it  might  be  well  to  catch  him,  and  stuff  and  preserve  his 
skin,  as  an  interesting  specimen  of  that  soon  to  be  extinct 
variety  of  the  genus  Democrat. 

And  now,  as  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  That  decision 
declares  two  propositions — first,  that  a  negro  can  not  sue  in 
the  United  States  Courts;  and  secondly,  that  Congress  can  not 
prohibit  slavery  in  the  Territories.  It  was  made  by  a  divided 
court — dividing  diiferently  on  the  different  points.  Judge 
Douglas  does  not  discuss  the  merits  of  the  decision,  and  in  that 
respect,  I  shall  follow  his  example,  believing  I  could  no  more 
improve  upon  McLean  and  Curtis,  than  he  could  on  Taney. 

He  denounces  all  who  question  the  correctness  of  that  decis- 
ion, as  ofiering  violent  resistance  to  it.  But  who  resists  it? 
Who  has,  in  spite  of  the  decision,  declared  Dred  Scott  free,  and 
resisted  the  authority  of  his  master  over  him  ? 

Judicial  decisions  have  two  uses — first,  to  absolutely  deter- 
mine the  case  decided ;  and  secondly,  to  indicate  to  the  public 
how  other  similar  cases  will  be  decided  when  they  arise.  For 
the  latter  use,  they  are  called  "  precedents  "  and  "  authorities." 

We  believe  as  much  as  Judge  Douglas  (perhaps  more)  in 
obedience  to,  and  respect  for  the  judicial  department  of  Govern- 
ment. We  think  its  decisions  on  Constitutional  questions, 
when  fully  settled,  should  control,  not  only  the  particular  cases 
decided,  but  the  general  policy  of  the  country,  subject  to  be 
disturbed  only  by  amendments  of  the  Constitution,  as  provided 
in  that  instrument  itself  More  than  this  would  be  revolution. 
But  we  think  the  Dred  Scott  decision  is  erroneous.  We  know 
the  court  that  made  it,  has  often  overruled  its  own  decisions, 
and  we  shall  do  what  we  can  to  have  it  overrule  this.  We 
offer  no  resistance  to  it. 

Judicial  decisions  are  of  greater  or  less  authority  as  prece- 
dents, according  to  circumstances.  That  this  should  be  so, 
accords  both  with  common  sense,  and  the  customary  under- 
standing of  the  legal  profession. 

If  this  important  decision  had  been  made  by  the  unanimous 
concurrence  of  the  judges,  and  without  any  apparent  partisan 
bias,  and  in  accordance  with  legal  public  expectation,  and  with 


•136  LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

the  steady  practice  of  the  departments,  throughout  our  his- 
tory, and  had  been  in  no  part  based  on  assumed  historical 
facts  which  are  not  really  true ;  or,  if  wanting  in  some  of  these, 
it  had  been  before  the  court  more  than  once,  and  had  there 
been  affirmed  and  re-affirmed  through  a  course  of  years,  it 
then  might  be,  perhaps  would  be,  factious,  nay,  even  revolu- 
tionary, not  to  acquiesce  in  it  as  a  precedent. 

But  when,  as  is  true,  we  find  it  wanting  in  all  these  claims 
to  the  public  confidence,  it  is  not  resistance,  it  is  not  factious, 
it  is  not  even  disrespectful,  to  treat  it  as  not  having  yet  quite 
established  a  settled  doctrine  for  the  country.  But  Judge 
Douglas  considers  this  view  awful.     Hear  him : 

"The  courts  are  the  tribunals  prescribed  by  the  Constitu- 
tion and  created  by  the  authority  of  the  people  to  determine, 
expound  and  enforce  the  law.  Hence,  whoever  resists  the 
final  decision  of  the  highest  judicial  tribunal,  aims  a  deadly 
blow  to  our  whole  Republican  system  of  government — a  blow 
which,  if  successful,  would  place  all  our  rights  and  liberties  at 
the  mercy  of  passion,  anarchy  and  violence.  I  repeat,  there- 
fore, that  if  resistance  to  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  in  a  matter  like  the  points  decided  in 
the  Dred  Scott  case,  clearly  within  their  .jurisdiction  as 
defined  by  the  Constitution,  shall  be  forced  upon  the  country 
as  a  political  issue,  it  will  become  a  distinct  and  naked  issue 
between  the  friends  and  enemies  of  the  Constitution  —  the 
friends  and  the  enemies  of  the  supremacy  of  the  laws." 

Why,  this  same  Supreme  Court  once  decided  a  national 
bank  to  be  Constitutional;  but  General  Jackson,  as  President 
of  the  United  States,  disregarded  the  decision,  and  vetoed  a 
bill  for  a  re-charter,  partly  on  Constitutional  ground,  declar- 
ing that  each  public  functionary  must  support  the  Constitu- 
tion, "as  he  understands  it."  But  hear  the  General's  own 
words.     Here  they  are,  taken  from  his  veto  message  : 

"It  is  maintained  by  the  advocates  of  the  bank,  that  its 
Constitutionality,  in  all  its  features,  ought  to  be  considered  as 
settled  by  precedent,  and  by  the  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court.  To  this  conclusion  I  can  not  assent.  IMere  precedent 
is  a  dangerous  source  of  authority,  and  should  not  be 
regarded  as  deciding  questions  of  Constitutional  power,  except 
where  the  acquiescence  of  the  people  and  the  States  can  be 
considered  as  well  settled.  So  far  from  this  being  the  case 
on  this  subject,  an  argument  against  the  bank  might  be  based 
on  precedent.  One  Congress,  in  1791,  decided  in  favor  of  a 
bank  ;  another,  in  1811,  decided  against  it.  One  Congress, 
in  1815,  decided  against  a  bank  ;  another,  in  1816,  decided  in 
its  favor.     Prior  to  the  present  Congress,  therefore,  the  piece- 


LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  lo7 

dents  drawn  from  that  source  were  equal.  If  we  resort  to  the 
States,  the  expressions  of  legislative,  judicial  and  executive 
opinions  against  the  bank  have  been  probably  to  those  in  its 
favor  as  four  to  one.  There  is  nothing  in  precedent,  there- 
fore, which,  if  its  authority  were  admitted,  ought  to  weigh  in 
favor  of  the  act  before  me." 

I  drop  the  quotations  merely  to  remark,  that  all  there  ever 
was,  in  the  way  of  precedent  up  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision, 
on  the  points  therein  decided,  had  been  against  that  decision. 
But  hear  General  Jackson  further  : 

"If  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  covered  the  whole 
ground  of  this  act,  it  ought  not  to  control  the  co-ordinate 
authorities  of  this  Government.  The  Congress,  the  Executive 
and  the  Court,  must  each  for  itself  be  guided  by  its  own  opin- 
ion of  the  Constitution.  Each  public  officer,  who  takes  an 
oath  to  support  the  Constitution,  swears  that  he  will  support 
it  as  he  understands  it,  and  not  as  it  is  understood  by  others." 

Again  and  again  have  I  heard  Judge  Douglas  denounce 
that  bank  decision,  and  applaud  General  Jackson  for  disre- 
garding it.  It  would  be  interesting  for  him  to  look  over  his 
recent  speech,  and  see  how  exactly  his  fierce  philippics  against 
us  for  resisting  Supreme  Court  decisions,  fall  upon  his  own 
head.  It  will  call  to  mind  a  long  and  fierce  political  war  in 
this  country,  upon  an  issue  which,  in  his  own  language,  and, 
of  course,  in  his  own  changeless  estimation,  was  "a  distinct 
issue  between  the  friends  and  the  enemies  of  the  Constitu- 
tion," and  in  which  war  he  fought  in  the  ranks  of  the  ene- 
mies of  the  Constitution. 

I  have  said,  in  substance,  that  the  Dred  Scott  decision  was, 
in  part,  based  on  assumed  historical  facts  which  were  not 
really  true,  and  I  ought  not  to  leave  the  subject  without  giv- 
ing some  reasons  for  saying  this ;  I,  therefore,  give  an 
instance  or  two,  which  I  think  fully  sustain  me.  Chief  Jus- 
tice Taney,  in  delivering  the  opinion  of  the  majority  of  the 
Court,  insists  at  great  length,  that  negroes  were  no  part  of  the 
people  who  made,  or  for  whom  was  made,  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  or  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

On  the  contrary.  Judge  Curtis,  in  his  dissenting  opinion, 
shows  that  in  five  of  the  then  thirteen  States,  to  wit :  New 
Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  New  York,  New  Jersey  and  North 
Carolina,  free  negoes  were  voters,  and,  in  proportion  to  their 
numbers,  had  the  same  part  in  making  the  Constitution  that 
the  white  people  had.  He  shows  this  with  so  much  particu- 
larity as  to  leave  no  doubt  of  its  truth  ;  and  as  a  sort  of  con- 
clusion on  that  point,  holds  the  following  language : 

"The  Constitation  was  ordained  and  established  by  tha 


138  LIFE   OF    AEaAHAM    LINCOLN. 

people  of  the  United  States,  throup;li  the  action,  in  each  State, 
of  those  persons  who  were  qualified  by  its  laws  to  act  thereon 
in  behalf  of  themselves  and  all  other  citizens  of  the  State. 
In  some  of  the  States,  as  we  have  seen,  colored  persons  were 
among  those  qualified  by  law  to  act  on  the  subject.  These 
colored  persons  were  not  only  included  in  the  body  of  'the 
people  of  the  United  States,'  by  whom  the  Constitution  was 
ordained  and  established ;  but  in  at  least  five  of  the  States 
they  had  the  power  to  act,  and,  doubtless,  did  act,  by  their 
suffrages,  upon  the  question  of  its  adoption." 

Again,  Chief  Justice  Taney  says :  "  It  is  diiEcult,  at  this 
day  to  realize  the  state  of  public  opinion  in  relation  to  that 
unfortunate  race,  which  prevailed  in  the  civilized  and  enlight- 
ened portions  of  the  world  at  the  time  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  and  when  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
was  framed  and  adopted."  And  again,  after  quoting  from  the 
Declaration,  he  says  :  "  The  general  words  above  quoted  would 
seem  to  include  the  whole  human  family,  and  if  they  were 
used  in  a  similar  instrument  at  this  day,  would  be  so  under- 
stood." 

In  these  the  Chief  Justice  does  not  directly  assert,  but 
plainly  assumes,  as  a  fact,  that  the  public  estimate  of  the 
black  man  is  more  favorable  now  than  it  was  in  the  days  of 
the  Revolution.  This  assumption  is  a  mistake.  In  some  tri- 
fling particulars,  the  condition  of  that  race  has  been  amelior- 
ated ;  but,  as  a  whole,  in  this  country,  the  change  between 
then  and  now  is  decidedly  the  other  way ;  and  their  ultimate 
destiny  has  never  appeared  so  hopeless  as  in  the  last  three  or 
four  years.  In  two  of  the  five  States  —  New  Jersey  and 
North  Carolina  —  that  then  gave  the  free  negro  the  right  of 
voting,  the  right  has  since  been  taken  away;  and  in  the  third 
—  New  York  —  it  has  been  greatly  abridged  ;  while  it  has  not 
been  extended,  so  far  as  I  know,  to  a  single  additional  State, 
though  the  number  of  the  States  has  more  than  doubled.  In 
those  days,  as  I  understand,  masters  could,  at  their  own  pleas- 
ure, emancipate  their  slaves  ;  but  since  then  such  legal 
restraints  have  been  made  upon  emancipation  as  to  amount 
almost  to  prohibition.  In  those  days  "Legislatures  held  the 
unquestioned  power  to  abolish  slavery  in  tlieir  respective 
States ;  but  now  it  is  becoming  quite  fashionable  for  State 
Constitutions  to  withhold  that  power  from  the  Legislatures. 
In  those  days,  by  common  consent,  the  spread  of  the  black 
man's  bondage  to  the  new  countries  was  prohibited  ;  but  now, 
Congress  decides  that  it  will  not  continue  the  prohibition  — 
and  the  Supreme  Court  decides  that  it  could  not  if  it  would. 
In  those  days    our    Declaration    of   Independence  was  held 


LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  139 

sacred  by  all,  and  thou2;ht  to  include  all ;  but  now,  to  aid  in 
making  the  bondage  of  the  negro  universal  and  eternal,  it  is 
assailed,  sneered  at,  construed,  hawked  at,  and  torn,  till,  if  its 
framers  could  rise  from  their  graves,  they  could  not  at  all 
recognize  it.  All  the  powers  of  earth  seem  rapidly  combining 
against  him.  Mammon  is  after  him  ;  ambition  follows,  phi- 
losophy  follows,  and  the  theology  of  the  day  is  fast  joining 
the  cry.  They  have  him  in  his  prison-house;  they  have 
searched  his  person,  and  left  no  prying  instrument  with  him 
One  after  another  they  have  closed  the  heavy  iron  doors  upon 
him  ;  and  now  they  have  him,  as  it  were,  bolted  in  with  a  lock 
of  a  hundred  keys,  which  can  never  be  unlocked  without  the 
concurrence  of  every  key ;  the  keys  in  the  hands  of  a  hun- 
dred different  men,  and  they  scattered  to  a  hundred  different 
and  distant  places;  and  they  stand  musing  as  to  what  inven- 
tion, in  all  the  dominions  of  mind  and  matter,  can  be  pro- 
duced to  make  the  impossibility  of  his  escape  more  complete 
than  it  is. 

It  is  grossly  incorrect  to  say  or  assume,  that  the  public  esti- 
mate of  the  negro  is  more  favorable  now  than  it  was  at  the 
origin  of  the  Government. 

Three  years  and  a  half  ago  Judge  Douglas  brought  forward 
his  famous  Nebraska  bill.  The  country  was  at  once  in  a 
blaze.  He  scorned  all  opposition,  and  carried  it  through  Con- 
gress. Since  then  he  has  seen  himself  superseded  in  a  Presi- 
dential nomination,  by  one  indorsing  the  general  doctrine  of 
his  measure,  but  at  the  same  time  standing  clear  of  the  odium 
of  its  untimely  agitation,  and  its  gross  breach  of  national  faith  ; 
and  he  has  seen  that  successful  rival  Constitutionally  elected, 
not  by  the  strength  of  friends,  but  by  the  division  of  his  adver- 
saries, being  in  a  popular  minority  of  nearly  four  hundred 
thousand  votes.  He  has  seen  his  chief  aids  in  his  own  State, 
Shields  and  Eichardson,  politically  speaking,  successively 
tried,  convicted,  and  executed,  for  an  offense  not  their  own, 
but  his.  And  now  he  sees  his  own  case,  standing  next  on  the 
docket  for  trial. 

There  is  a  natural  disgust,  in  the  minds  of  nearly  all  white 
people,  to  the  idea  of  an  indiscriminate  amalgamation  of  the 
white  and  black  races  ;  and  Judge  Douglas  evidently  is  basing 
his  chief  hope  upon  the  chances  of  his  being  able  to  appro- 
priate the  benefit  of  this  disgust  to  himself  If  he  can,  by 
much  drumming  and  repeating,  fasten  the  odium  of  that  idea 
upon  his  adversaries,  he  thinks  he  can  struggle  through  the 
storm.  He,  therefore,  clings  to  this  hope,  as  a  drowning  man 
to  the  last  plank.  He  makes  an  occasion  for  lugging  it  in 
from  the  opposition  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision.     He  finds  the 


140  LIFK    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Republicans  insistin<>  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
includes  all  men,  black  as  -well  as  white,  and  forthwith  he 
boldly  denies  that  it  includes  negroes  at  all,  and  proceeds  to 
argue  gravely  that  all  who  contend  it  does,  do  so  only  because 
they  want  to  vote,  eat  and  sleep,  and  marry  with  negroes  !  He 
will  have  it  that  they  can  not  be  consistent  else.  Now,  I  pro- 
test against  the  counterfeit  logic  which  concludes  that,  because 
I  do  not  want  a  black  woman  for  a  slave  I  must  necessarily 
want  her  for  a  wife.  I  need  not  have  her  for  either.  I  can 
just  leave  her  alone.  In  some  respects  she  certainly  is  not 
my  equal  ;  but  in  her  natural  right  to  eat  the  bread  she  earns 
with  her  own  hands,  without  asking  leave  of  any  one  else,  she 
is  my  equal,  and  the  equal  of  all  others. 

Chief  Justice  Taney,  in  his  opinion  in  the  Dred  Scott  case, 
admits  that  the  laniruage  of  the  Declaration  is  broad  enough 

^  CD  CD  O 

to  include  the  whole  human  family  ;  but  he  and  Judge  Doug- 
las argue  that  the  authors  of  that  instrument  did  not  intend 
to  include  negroes,  by  the  fact  that  they  did  not  at  once  actu- 
ally place  them  on  an  equality  with  the  whites.  Now,  this 
grave  argument  comes  to  just  nothing  at  all,  by  the  other  fact, 
that  they  did  not  at  once,  or  ever  afterward,  actually  place  all 
white  people  on  an  equality  with  one  another.  And  this  is 
the  staple  argument  of  both  the  Chief  Justice  and  the  Sena- 
tor for  doing  this  obvious  violence  to  the  plain,  unmistakable 
language  of  the  Declaration. 

I  think  the  authors  of  that  notable  instrument  intended  to 
include  all  men,  but  they  did  not  intend  to  declare  all  men 
equal  in  all  respects.  They  did  not  mean  to  say  all  were  equal 
in  color,  size,  intellect,  moral  developments,  or  social  capacity. 
They  defined  with  tolerable  distinctness  in  what  respects  they 
did  consider  all  men  created  equal — equal  with  "  certain 
inalienable  rights,  among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness."  This  they  said,  and  this  meant.  They 
did  not  mean  to  assert  the  obvious  untruth,  that  all  were  then 
actually  enjoying  that  equality,  nor  yet,  that  they  were  about 
to  confer  it  immediately  upon  them.  In  fact,  they  had  no 
power  to  confer  such  a  boon.  They  meant  simply  to  declare 
the  righf,  so  that  the  enforcement  of  it  might  follow  as  fast  as 
circumstances  should  permit. 

Mr.  Lincoln,  in  conclusion,  pointed  out  in  a  clear  and  forci- 
ble manner  the  real  distinction  between  bis  own  views  and 
those  of  Mr.  Douglas,  on  this  question,  as  he  has  done  in  other 
speeches. 


LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  141 


CHAPTEH  XI. 

THE   LINCOLN-DOUGLAS   CAMPAIGN  OF  1858. 

The  Lecompton  Struggle. — The  Policy  of  Douglas  Changed. — He 
Breaks  with  the  Administration  and  Loses  Caste  at  the  South. — 
Republican  Sympathies. — Douglas  Falters,  but  Opposes  the  English 
Bill. — Passage  of  that  Measure. — Democratic  State  Convention  of 
Illinois. — Douglas  Indorsed,  and  Efforts  for  His  Re-election  Com- 
menced.— The  Democratic  Bolt. — Meeting  of  the  Republican  State 
Convention  in  June. — Mr.  Lincoln  named  as  the  First  and  Only 
Choice  of  the  Republicans  for  Senator. — His  Great  Speech  Before 
the  Convention  at  Springfield. — Douglas  and  Lincoln  at  Chicago. — 
Speeches  at  Bloomington  and  Springfield. — Unfairness  of  the  Appor- 
tionment Pointed  Out  by  Mr.  Lincoln. — He  Analyzes  the  Douglas 
Programme. — Seven  Joint  Debates. — Douglas  Produces  a  Bogus 
Platform,  and  Propounds  Interrogatories. —  "Unfriendly  Legisla- 
tion."— Lincoln  Fully  Defines  His  Position  on  the  Slavery  Question. — 
Result  of  the  Canvass. — The  People  for  Lincoln;  the  Apportionment 
for  Douglas. — Public  opinion. 

The  Lecompton  Convention  did  its  work  according  to  tte 
programme  laid  down  at  Washington.  It  adopted  the  Con- 
stitution desired,  and  probably  devised,  at  the  national  capital, 
with  the  design  of  forcing  slavery  upon  an  unwilling  people. 
One  of  the  chief  instruments  in  the  execution  of  this  work, 
so  far  as  it  could  be  consummated  at  Lecompton,  was  John 
Calhoun,  an  Illinois  politician.  The  act  under  which  that 
Convention  was  assembled,  had  received  an  unreserved  and 
complete  indorsement  from  Douglas,  as  "  fair  and  just."  He 
was  emphatically  committed  in  advance  by  his  Springfield 
speech  to  the  action  of  that  Convention,  which  exercised  no 
powers  not  distinctly  conferred  upon  it  by  the  act  thus 
indorsed,  or  not  in  strict  accordance  with  what  was  contem- 
plated from  the  first  by  its  framers.  Yet  late  in  the  autumn 
of  1857,  a  rumor  began  to  be  circulated  that  Douglas  was  hes- 
itating about  sustaining  the  Lecompton  Constitution.     Know 


142  LIFE  01'  ABRAHAM!    1.1N'(  OLN. 

ing  his  previous  attitude,  people  were  generally  incredulous  in 
regard  to  this  report.  After  a  time,  however,  some  of  the 
leading  Democratic  papers  of  Illinois  began  to  break  ground 
against  the  Lecompton  scheme,  and  when  Congress  assembled, 
in  December,  there  were  serious  doubts  as  to  whether  Douglas 
did  not  intend  to  break  with  the  Administration  on  this  sub- 
ject. Suspense  on  this  point  was  soon  relieved.  Immedi- 
ately after  the  annual  message  of  Mr.  Buchanan  was  read  in 
the  Senate,  Douglas  took  occasion  to  announce  his  disagree- 
ment with  the  President  on  the  Kansas  question,  and  this 
notice  was  followed  up  by  an  elaborate  speech  the  next  day, 
in  which  he  boldly  talked  against  "  forcing  this  Constitution 
down  the  throats  of  the  people  of  Kansas  in  opposition  to 
their  wishes  and  in  violation  of  our  pledges."  He  ignored  all 
his  recent  attempts  to  charge  the  responsibility  upon  the  non- 
voters  if  the  Constitution  did  not  suit  them.  He  seemed  to 
forget  his  declaration  that  the  act  calling  the  Lecompton  Con- 
vention was  "just  and  fair  in  all  its  objects  and  provisions." 
He  now  denied  the  right  of  the  minority  represented  at 
Lecompton,  in  accordance  with  the  well-understood  "  objects 
and  provisions  "  of  that  act,  "  to  defraud  the  majority  of  that 
people  out  of  their  elective  franchise." 

In  brief,  whatever  his  motives  —  and  these  may  be  left  to 
himself — he  had  completely  changed  his  attitude  during  the 
last  few  months,  and  now  co-operated  with  the  Republicans 
in  opposing  the  Lecompton  policy  to  which  the  President  and 
the  Democratic  party  had  become  definitely  committed  before 
the  world.  These  two  facts,  however,  are  undeniable.  The 
re-election  of  Douglas  as  Senator  was  to  depend  on  the  com- 
ing election  in  Illinois,  and  without  some  definite  change  of 
course,  from  that  he  had  indicated  at  Springfield  in  June  pre- 
vious, he  would  be  compelled  to  yield  his  place  to  Abraham 
Lincoln,  as  the  associate  of  Lyman  Trumbull. 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  follow  the  history  of  the  despe- 
rate struggle  which  this  change  cost  him  during  the  long 
session  of  Congress.  He  carried  with  him  but  two  Democratic 
Senators  out  of  nearly  forty,  and  only  a  little  larger  fraction 
of  the  Democratic  members  of  the  House.     He  was  generally 


LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  143 

denounced  at  the  South  as  a  traitor,  and  this  fact,  added  to 
the  energy  with  which  he  carried  on  his  warfare  with  the 
Administration  against  so  many  odds,  gained  him  not  a  little 
sympathy  in  many  Republican  quarters.  This,  however,  for 
the  most  part,  his  subsequent  course  alienated.  It  is  believed 
that  but  for  the  firm  stand  taken  by  the  lamented  Broderick, 
in  opposition  to  the  course  intended,  Douglas  would  have 
made  his  peace  with  the  Administration  by  voting  for  the 
shabby  compromise  known  as  the  English  Bill.  That  meas- 
ure, in  spite  of  his  final  influence  against  it,  passed  both 
Houses  on  the  4th  of  May. 

Previous  to  that  date,  the  Democratic  State  Convention,  of 
Illinois,  had  met  at  Springfield  (April  21st),  nominated  a 
State  ticket  and  indorsed  Douglas  and  his  Anti-Leeompton 
associates  from  that  State.  The  issue  was  thus  fairly  joined 
early  in  the  season  ;  and  all  the  influence  of  the  Administra- 
tion was  brought  to  bear  in  getting  up  a  counter  Democratic 
organization  sustaining  the  Lecompton  policy.  However 
promising  for  a  time,  this  undertaking  was  not  brilliantly 
successful.  The  friends  of  Douglas  had  taken  time  by  the 
forelock,  and  made  the  most  of  their  advantage  in  having  the 
regular  organization,  with  a  State  ticket  early  in  the  field. 
They  spared  no  labor  from  this  time  forward  in  preparing  for 
the  re-election  of  Douglas.  Without  expecting  the  election 
of  their  candidates  on  the  State  ticket,  they  hoped,  through  an 
unequal  apportionment  strongly  favoring  their  side,  and  from 
the  large  number  of  Democratic  Senators  holding  over,  to  be 
able,  at  least,  to  get  the  control  of  the  Senate,  and  to  prevent 
the  choice  of  a  Republican  successor  to  Douglas,  if  they  could 
not  accomplish  their  full  purpose. 

On  the  16th  of  June — the  day  on  which  the  session  of  Con- 
gress closed— the  Republicans  held  their  State  Convention  at 
Springfield.  Richard  Yates  was  the  temporary,  and  Gustavus 
Koerner  the  permanent  President.  Nearly  every  one  of  the 
hundred  counties  of  Illinois  was  duly  represented,  the  delegates 
numbering  over  five  hundred.  Candidates  were  nominated  for 
State  Treasurer  and  for  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction, 
and  a  Platform  was  adopted  essentially  the  same  as  that  put 


144  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

forth  two  years  previously  at  Bloomington,  as  already  quoted. 
A  resolution  approving  the  course  of  Lyman  Trumbull  as  Sen- 
ator was  carried  without  opposition.  The  following  resolution 
was  then  introduced,  which,  according  to  the  official  report, 
"was  greeted  with  shouts  of  applause,  and  unanimously 
adopted  :" 

Resolved,  That  Abraham  Lincoln  is  the  first  and  only  choice 
of  the  Republicans  of  Illinois  for  the  United  States  Senate, 
as  the  successor  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas. 

Mr.  Liiicoln  had  not  been  present  during  the  Convention, 
and  when  called  on  to  speak,  at  the  adjourned  evening  session, 
he  had  no  knowledge  that  such  a  resolution  had  been  offered. 
So  far  was  it  from  being  true  that  his  speech  on  that  occasion, 
as  subsequently  stated  by  Douglas,  was  made  on  accepting  a 
nomination  for  the  Senatorship,  that,  of  course,  he  did  not  allude 
to  that  subject.  The  speech,  too,  though  carefully  prepared, 
as  Mr.  Lincoln  afterward  admitted,  was  never  known  to  any 
one  else  than  himself  until  its  delivery,  notwithstanding  the 
insinuation  of  Douglas  that  it  was  a  subject  of  special  con- 
sultation among  the  Republican  leaders.  It  was  the  result 
of  a  broad  and  profound  survey  of  the  slavery  question,  from 
the  point  of  view  then  reached  in  the  progress  of  parties. 
It  laid  down  certain  propositions  as  philosophical  truths,  derived 
from  a  close  observation  of  events.  Its  opening  paragraph 
has  already  become  one  of  the  most  celebrated  passages  in 
the  political  literature  of  the  country.  However  it  may  be 
perverted,  there  is  no  portion  of  this  speech  which  can  be 
successfully  assailed,  when  taken  in  its  true  meaning.  There 
is  a  moral  sublimity  in  the  rugged  honesty  and  directness  with 
which  the  grand  issues,  in  this  whole  slavery  agitation  are  pre- 
sented. The  two  forces  of  slavery  and  free  labor  in  our  civil 
and  social  system,  inevitably  antagonistic,  so  long  as  tliey  come 
into  collision  in  our  national  politics,  have  each  tlieir  peculiar 
tendency,  the  one  to  make  slavery,  and  the  other  to  make  free 
labor  universal.  Until  slavery  is  again  reduced  to  its  true  local 
and  sectional  character,  from  which  Douglas,  Buchanan,  and 
other  agitators  have  conspired  to  raise  it  into  national  pre- 
dominance, the  antagonism  will  not  cease.     What  Douglas  ha": 


LIFE   OF    ABPwVHAir    LINCOLN.  145 

always  snperficially  slurred  over — pretending  an  indifference, 
such  as  no  earnest  or  sound  statesman  can  really  feel,  whether 
"slavery  is  voted  up  or  voted  down" — Lincoln  treats  with 
true  philosophic  insight,  and  in  the  light  of  earnest  convic- 
tions. This  famous  speech  is  in  entire  harmony  with  the 
views  of  the  earlier  statesmen,  even  of  the  South.  If  any 
man  at  first  reads  this  great  efi"ort  doubtingly,  or  with  an 
inclination  toward  dissent — as  most  assuredly  few  really 
earnest,  thinking  men  can — let  him  carefully  look  onward  and 
sec  how  it  endures  the  test  of  a  severe  campaign,  and  how  its 
chief  positions  are  maintained  against  all  the  assaults  of  a 
wily  foe,  who  is  himself  really  on  trial,  solemnly  indicted  by 
that  speech,  yet  vainly  imagines  that  he  is  placing  Mr.  Lin- 
coln on  the  defensive. 

"  The  hall,  and  lobbies,  and  galleries  were  even  more 
densely  crowded  and  packed  than  at  any  time  during  the 
day,"  says  the  official  report,  as  the  Convention  reassembled 
in  the  evening  to  hear  Mr.  Lincoln.  "  As  he  approached  the 
speaker's  stand,  he  was  greeted  with  shouts,  and  hurrahs,  and 
prolonged  cheering." 

MR.  LINCOLN'S  FIEST  SPEECH  IN  THE  SENATORIAL  CANVASS. 
(^At  the  Republican  State  Convention,  Jane  16,  1858.) 

Mr.  Lincoln  said — 

Gentlemen  of  the  Convention: — If  we  could  first  know 
where  we  are,  and  whither  we  are  tending,  we  could  then  bet- 
ter judge  what  to  do,  and  how  to  do  it.  'SVe  are  now  far  on  into 
the  fifth  year,  since  a  policy  was  initiated,  with  the  avowed 
object,  and  confident  promise,  of  putting  an  end  to  slavery 
agitation.  Under  the  operation  of  that  policy,  that  agitation 
has  not  only  not  ceased,  but  has  constantly  augmented.  In 
my  opinion,  it  will  not  cease,  until  a  crisis  shall  have  been 
reached,  and  passed.  • "  A  house  divided  against  itself  can  not 
stand."  I  believe  this  Government  can  not  endure,  perma- 
nently, half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union 
to  be  dissolved — I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  iall — but  I  do 
expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one 
thing,  or  all  the  other.  Either  the  opponents  of  slavery  will 
arrest  the  further  spread  of  it.  and  place  it  where  the  public 
mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  course  of  ultimate 
extinction,  or  its  advocates  will  push  it  forward,  till  it  shall 

12 


146  LIFE    Ob-    ABItAllA.M    I.lNfOLN. 

become  alike  lawful  in  all  the  States,  old  as  well  as  new — 
North  as  well  as  South. 

Have  we  no  tendency  to  the  latter  condition  ?  Let  any 
one  who  doubts,  carefullj^  contemj)late  that  now  almost  com- 
plete legal  combination — piece  of  machinery,  so  to  speak — • 
compounded  of  the  Nebraska  doctrine,  and  the  Dred  Scott 
decision.  Let  him  consider  not  only  what  work  the  machinery 
is  adapted  to  do,  and  how  well  adapted,  but  also  let  him  study 
the  history  of  its  construction,  and  trace,  if  he  can,  or  rather 
fail,  if  he  can,  to  trace  the  evidences  of  design,  and  concert 
of  action,  among'  its  chief  master-workers  from  the  be2;inninsr. 

But,  so  far,  Congress  only  had  acted  ;  and  an  indorsement 
by  the  people,  real  or  apparent,  was  indispensable,  to  save  the 
point  already  gained,  and  give  chance  for  more.  The  new 
year  of  1854  found  slavery  excluded  from  more  than  half  the 
States  by  State  Constitutions,  and  from  most  of  the  national 
territory  by  Congressional  prohibition.  Four  days  later  com- 
menced the  struggle,  which  ended  in  repealing  that  Congress- 
ional prohibition.  This  opened  all  the  national  territory  to 
slavery,  and   was  the  first  point  gained. 

This  necessity  had  not  been  overlooked,  but  had  been  pro- 
vided for,  as  well  as  might  be,  in  the  notable  argument  of 
"  squatter  sovcreignfi/,'^  otherwise  called  "  sacred  right  of  self- 
government''  which  latter  phrase,  though  expressive  of  the 
only  rightful  basis  of  any  government,  was  so  perverted  in  this 
attempted  use  of  it  as  to  amount  to  just  this  :  that  if  any 
one  man  choose  to  enslave  another,  no  third  man  shall  be 
allowed  to  object.  That  ai-gument  was  incorporated  into  the 
Nebraska  Bill  itself,  in  the  language  which  follows :  "  It 
being  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  this  act  not  to  legislate 
slavery  into  any  Territory  or  State,  nor  exclude  it  therefrom  ; 
but  to  leave  the  people  thereof  perfectly  free  to  form  and  reg- 
ulate their  domestic  institutions  in  their  own  way,  subject  only 
to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States." 

Then  opened  the  roar  of  loose  declamation  in  favor  of 
"  squatter  sovereignty,"  and  "  sacred  right  of  self-govern- 
ment." 

"  But,"  said  opposition  members,  "let  us  be  more  specific — 
let  us  amend  the  bill  so  as  to  expressly  declare  that  the  people 
of  the  territory  maij  exclude  slavery."  "  Not  we,"  said  the 
friends  of  the  measure  ;  and  down  they  voted  the  amendment. 

While  the  Nebraska  Bill  was  passing  through  Congress,  a 
law  case,  involving  the  question  of  a  negro's  freedom,  by 
reason  of  his  owner  having  voluntarily  taken  him  first  into  a 
fi*ee  State  and  then  a  territory  covered  by  the  Congressional 
prohibition,  and  held  him  as  a  slave — for  a  long  time  in  each — 


LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN'.  147 

was  passing  through  the  U.  S.  Circuit  Court  for  t'le  District  of 
Missouri ;  and  both  tlie  Nebraska  Bill  and  lav  suit  were 
brought  to  a  decision  in  the  same  month  of  May,  1854.  The 
negro's  name  was  "  Dred  Scott,"  which  name  no.v  designates 
the  decision  finally  made  in  the  case. 

Before  the  then  next  Presidential  election  case,  the  law  came 
to,  and  was  argued  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  ; 
but  the  decision  of  it  was  deferred  until  after  the  election. 
Still,  hiforc  the  election,  Senator  Trumbull,  on  the  floor  of  the 
Senate,  requests  the  leading  advocate  of  the  Nebraska  Bill  to 
state  Ms,  ojnnion  whether  a  people  of  a  territory  can  constitu- 
tionally exclude  slavery  from  their  limits ;  and  the  latter 
answers,  "  That  is  a  question  for  the  Supreme  Court." 

The  election  came.  Mr.  Buchanan  was  elected,  and  the 
indorsement,  such  as  it  was,  secured.  That  was  the  second 
point  gained.  The  indorsement,  however,  fell  short  of  a  clear 
popular  majority  by  nearly  four  hundred  thousand  votes,  and 
so,  perhaps,  was  not  overwhelmingly  reliable  and  satisfactory. 
The  outgoing  President  in  his  last  annual  message,  as  impress- 
ively as  possible  echoed  back  upon  the  people  the  weight  and 
authority  of  the  indorsement. 

The  Supreme  Court  met  again  ;  did  not  announce  their 
decision,  but  ordered  a  re-argument.  The  Presidential  inau- 
guration came,  and  still  no  decision  of  the  court ;  but  the 
incoming  President,  in  his  Inaugural  Address,  fervently 
exhorted  the  people  to  abide  by  the  forthcoming  decision, 
whatever  it  might  be.     Then,  in  a  few  days,  came  the  decision. 

This  was  the  third  point  gained. 

The  reputed  author  of  the  Nebraska  Bill  finds  an  early 
occasion  to  make  a  speech  at  this  capitol  indorsing  the  Dred 
Scott  decision,  and  vehemently  denouncing  all  opposition  to 
it.  The  new  President,  too,  seizes  the  early  occasion  of  the 
Silliman  letter  to  indorse  and  strongly  construe  that  decision, 
and  to  express  his  astonishment  that  any  difierent  view  had 
ever  been  entertained.  At  length  a  squabble  springs  up 
between  the  President  and  the  author  of  the  Nebraska  Bill 
on  the  mere  question  of  fact,  whether  the  Leeompton  Consti- 
tution was  or  was  not,  in  any  just  sense,  made  by  the  people 
of  Kansas ;  and,  in  that  squabble,  the  latter  declares  that  all 
'he  wants  is  a  fair  vote  for  the  people,  and  that  he  cares  not 
whether  slavery  be  voted  down  or  voted  up.  I  do  not  under- 
stand his  declaration  that  he  cares  not  whether  slavery  be 
voted  down  or  voted  up,  to  be  intended  by  him  other  than  as 
an  apt  definition  of  the  policy  he  would  impress  upon  the 
public  mind — the  principle  for  which  he  declares  he  has 
sufi"ered  much,  and  is  ready  to  suffer  to  the  end. 


148  LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

And  well  may  he  cling  to  that  principle.  If  he  has  any 
parental  feeling,  well  may  he  cling  to  it.  That  principle  is 
the  only  shred  left  of  his  original  Nebraska  doctrine.  Under 
the  Dred  Scott  decision,  "  squatter  sovereignty  "  squatted  out 
of  existence,  tumbled  down  like  temporary  scaffolding — like 
the  mold  at  the  foundry,  served  through  one  blast,  and  fell 
back  into  loose  sand — helped  to  carry  an  election,  and  then 
was  kicked  to  the  winds.  His  late  joint  struggle  with  the  Re- 
publicans, against  the  Lecompton  Constitution,  involves  noth- 
ing of  the  original  Nebraska  doctrine.  That  struggle  was 
Made  on  a  point — the  right  of  a  people  to  make  their  own  Con- 
stitution— upon  which  he  and  the  Republicans  have  never 
differed. 

The  several  points  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  in  connection 
with  Senator  Douglas's  "care  not"  policy,  constitute  the  piece 
of  machinery  in  its  present  state  of  advancement.  The  work- 
ing points  of  that  machinery  ai'e  : 

First,  That  no  negro  slave,  imported  as  such  from  Africa, 
and  no  descendant  of  such,  can  ever  be  a  citizen  of  any  State, 
in  the  sense  of  that  term  as  used  in  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States. 

This  point  is  made  in  order  to  deprive  the  negro,  in  every 
possible  event,  of  the  benefit  of  this  provision  of  the  United 
States  Constitution,  which  declares  that — "  The  citizens  of  each 
State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and  immunities  of 
citizens  in  the  several  States." 

Secondly,  that  '•  subject  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,"  neither  Congress  nor  a  Territorial  Legislature  can 
exclude  slavery  from  any  United  States  Territory. 

This  point  is  made  in  order  that  individual  men  may  fill  up 
the  Territories  with  slaves,  without  danger  of  losing  them  as 
property,  and  thus  to  enhance  the  chances  of  permanency  to 
the  institution  through  all  the  future. 

Thirdly,  that  whether  the  holding  a  negro  in  actual  slavery 
in  a  free  State  makes  him  free,  as  against  the  holder,  the  Uni- 
ted States  courts  will  not  decide,  but  will  leave  to  be  decided 
by  the  courts  of  any  slave  State  the  negro  may  be  forced  into 
by  the  master. 

This  point  is  made,  not  to  be  pressed  immediately  ;  but,  if 
acquiesced  in  for  a  while,  and  apparently  indorsed  by  the 
people  at  an  election,  then,  to  sustain  the  logical  conclusion 
that  what  Dred  Scott's  master  might  lawfully  do  with  Di'ed 
Scott,  in  the  free  State  of  Illinois,  every  other  master  may 
lawfully  do  with  any  other  one,  or  one  thousand  slaves,  in 
Illinois,  or  in  any  other  free  State. 

Auxiliary  to  all    this,  and  working  hand   in   hand  with  it, 


LIFE   OS   ABRAHAM   LINCOLX.  149 

the  Nebraska  doctrine,  or  what  is  left  of  it,  is  to  educate  and 
mold  public  opinion,  at  least  Northern  public  opinion,  not  to 
care  whether  slavery  is  voted  down  or  voted  up. 

This  shows  exactly  where  we  now  are,  and  partially  also, 
whither  we  are  tending. 

It  will  throw  additional  light  on  the  latter,  to  go  back,  and 
run  the  mind  over  the  string  of  historical  facts  already  stated. 
Several  things  will  now  appear  less  dark  and  mysterious  than 
they  did  when  they  were  transpiring.  The  people  were  to  be- 
left  "  perfectly  free,"  "subject  only  to  the  Constitution." 
What  the  Constitution  had  to  do  with  it,  outsiders  could  not 
then  see.  Plainly  enough  now,  it  was  an  exactly  fitted  niche 
for  the  Dred  Scott  decision  afterward  to  come  in,  and  declare 
that  perfect  freedom  of  the  people,  to  be  just  no  freedom  at  all. 

Why  was  the  amendment,  expressly  declaring  the  right  of 
the  people  to  exclude  slavery,  voted  down  ?  Plainly  enough 
now,  the  adoption  of  it  would  have  spoiled  the  niche  for  the 
Dred  Scott  decision. 

Why  was  the  court  decision  held  up?  Why  even  a  Sena- 
tor's individual  opinion  withheld  till  after  the  Presidential 
election  ?  Plainly  enough  now  ;  the  speaking  out  then  would 
have  damaged  the  '■'■perfectly  free  "  argument  upon  which  the 
election  was  to  be  carried. 

Why  the  outgoing  President's  felicitation  on  the  indorse- 
ment ?  Why  the  delay  of  a  re-argument?  Why  the  incom- 
ing President's  advance  exhortation  in  favor  of  the  decision? 
These  things  look  like  the  cautious  patting  and  petting  of  a 
spirited  horse,  preparatory  to  mounting  him,  when  it  is  dreaded 
that  he  may  give  the  rider  a  fall.  And  why  the  hasty  after- 
indorsements  of  the  decision,  by  the  President  and  others? 

We  can  not  absolutely  know  that  all  these  exact  adaptations 
are  the  result  of  pre-concert.  But  when  we  see  a  lot  of  framed 
timbers,  different  portions  of  which  we  know  have  been  gotten 
out,  at  diiferent  times  and  places,  and  by  different  workmen — 
Stephen,  Franklin,  Roger  and  James,  for  instance — and  when 
we  see  these  timbers  joined  together,  and  see  they  exactly  make 
the  frame  of  a  house  or  a  mill,  all  the  tenons  and  mortices 
exactly  fitting,  and  all  the  lengths  and  proportions  of  the  dif- 
ferent pieces  exactly  adapted  to  their  respective  places,  and  not 
a  piece  too  many  or  too  few — not  omitting  even  scaffolding — 
or,  if  a  single  piece  be  lacking,  we  can  see  the  place  in  the 
frame  exactly  fitted  and  prepared  to  yet  bring  such  piece  in — 
in  such  a  case,  we  find  it  impossible  not  to  believe  that  Stephen 
and  Franklin  and  Roger  and  James  all  understood  one  another 
from  the  beginning,  and  all  worked  upon  a  common  plan  or 
draft  drawn  up  before  the  first  blow  was  struck. 


150  LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

It  should  not  be  overlooked  that,  by  the  Nebraska  Bill,  the 
people  of  a  State  as  well  as  Territory,  were  to  be  left  ^'■per- 
fectly free,'"  ^^ subject  onhf  to  the  Cu)tsfift(tio7i."  Why  mention 
a  State  ?  They  were  legislating  for  Territories,  and  not  for  or 
about  States.  Certainly  the  people  of  a  State  are  and  ought 
to  be  subject  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  ;  but 
why  is  mention  of  this  lugged  into  this  merely  territorial  law? 
Why  are  the  people  of  a  Territory  and  the  people  of  a  State 
therein  lumped  together,  and  their  relation  to  the  Constitution 
therein  treated  as  being  precisely  the  same  ? 

While  the  opinion  of  the  court,  by  Chief  Justice  Taney,  in 
the  Dred  Scott  case,  and  the  separate  opinions  of  all  the  con- 
curring judges,  expressly  declare  that  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  neither  permits  Congress  nor  a  Territorial  Legis- 
lature to  exclude  slavery  from  any  United  States  Territory, 
they  all  omit  to  declare  whether  or  not  the  same  Constitution 
permits  a  State,  or  the  people  of  a  State  to  exclude  it.  Possi- 
bly, this  was  a  mere  omission ;  but  who  can  be  quite  sure,  if 
McLean  or  Curtis  had  sought  to  get  into  the  opinion  a  declar- 
ation of  unlimited  power  in  the  people  of  a  State  to  exclude 
slavery  from  their  limits,  just  as  Chase  and  Mace  sought  to  get 
such  declaration,  in  behalf  of  the  people  of  a  Territory,  into  the 
Nebraska  Bill — I  ask,  who  can  be  quite  sure  that  it  would  not 
have  been  voted  down,  in  the  one  case,  as  it  had  been  in  the  other. 

The  nearest  approach  to  the  point  of  declaring  the  power  of 
a  State  over  slavery,  is  made  by  Judge  Nelson.  He  approaches 
it  more  than  once,  using  the  precise  idea,  and  almost  the  lan- 
guage, too,  of  the  Nebraska  Act.  On  one  occasion  his  exact 
language  is,  "  except  in  cases  where  the  power  is  restrained 
by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  law  of  the  State 
is  supreme  over  the  subject  of  slavery  within  its  jurisdiction." 

In  what  cases  the  power  of  the  State  is  so  restrained  by  the 
United  States  Constitution,  is  left  an  open  question,  precisely 
as  the  same  question,  as  to  the  restraint  on  the  power  of  the 
Territories  was  left  open  in  the  Nebraska  Act.  Put  that  and 
that  together,  and  we  have  another  nice  little  niche,  which  we 
may,  ere  long,  see  filled  with  another  Supreme  Court  decision, 
declaring  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  does  not 
permit  a  State  to  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits.  And  this 
may  especially  be  expected  if  the  doctrine  of  "  care  not  whether 
slavery  be  voted  down  or  voted  up,"  shall  gain  upon  the 
public  mind  sufficiently  to  give  promise  that  such  a  decision 
can  be  maintained  when  made. 

Such  a  decision  is  all  that  slavery  now  lacks  of  being  alike 
lawful  in  all  the  States.  Welcome  or  unwelcome,  such  decis- 
ion is  probably  coming,  and  will  soon  be  upon  us,  unless  the 


LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN'.  151 

power  of  the  present  political  dynasty  shall  be  met  and  over- 
thrown. We  shall  lie  down  pleasantly  dreaming  that  the 
people  of  Missouri  are  on  the  verge  of  making  their  State  free; 
and  we  shall  awake  to  the  reality,  instead,  that  the  Supreme 
Court  has  made  Illinois  a  slave  State. 

To  meet  and  overthrow  the  power  of  that  dynasty,  is  the 
work  now  before  all  those  who  would  prevent  that  consumma- 
tion.    That  is  what  we  have  to  do.     But  how  can  we  best  do  it? 

There  are  those  who  denounce  us  openly  to  their  own  friends, 
and  yet  whisper  softly,  that  Senator  Douglas  is  the  aptcst 
instrument  there  is,  with  which  to  efi'ect  that  object.  They 
do  not  tell  us,  nor  has  he  told  us,  that  he  wishes  any  such 
object  to  be  effected.  They  wish  us  to  infer  all,  from  the  facts  that 
he  now  has  a  little  quarrel  with  the  present  head  of  the  dynasty ; 
and  that  he  has  regularly  voted  with  us,  on  a  single  point, 
upon  which  he  and  we  have  never  differed. 

They  remind  us  that  he  is  a  very  (/rent  man,  and  that  the 
largest  of  us  are  very  small  ones.  Let  this  be  granted.  But 
"a  living  dog  is  better  than  a  dead  lion."  Judge  Douglas,  if 
not  a  dead  lion  for  this  work,  is  at  least  a  caged  and  toothless 
one.  How  can  he  oppose  the  advances  of  slavery  ?  He  don't 
care  anything  about  it.  His  avowed  mission  is  impressing  the 
"  public  heart "  to  care  nothing  about  it. 

A  leading  Douglas  Democratic  newspaper  thinks  Douglas's 
superior  talent  will  be  needed  to  resist  the  revival  of  the  Afri- 
can slave-trade.  Does  Douglas  believe  an  effort  to  revive  that 
trade  is  approaching?  He  has  not  said  so.  Does  he  really 
think  so?  But  if  it  is,  how  can  he  resist  it?  For  years  he 
has  labored  to  prove  it  a  sacred  right  of  white  men  to  take 
negro  slaves  into  the  new  Territories.  Can  he  possibly  show 
that  it  is  less  a  sacred  right  to  buy  them  where  they  can  be 
bought  cheapest?  And,  unquestionably  they  can  be  bought 
cheaper  in  Africa  than  in  Virginia. 

He  has  done  all  in  his  power  to  reduce  the  whole  question  of 
slavery  to  one  of  a  mere  right  of  property  ;  and  as  such,  how 
can  he  oppose  the  foreign  slave-trade — how  can  he  refuse  that 
trade  in  that  "  property  "  shall  be  "  perfectly  free  " — unless  he 
does  it  as  a  protection  to  the  home  production?  And  as  the 
home  prodneers  will  probably  not  ask  the  protection,  he  will 
be  wholly  without  a  ground  of  opposition. 

Senator  Douglas  holds,  we  know,  that  a  man  may  rightfully 
be  wiser  to-day  than  he  was  yesterday — that  he  may  rightfully 
change  when  he  finds  himself  wrong.  But,  can  we  for  that 
reason  run  ahead  and  infer  that  he  will  make  any  particular 
change,  of  which  he  himself  has  given  no  intimation  ?  Can 
we  safely  base  our  action  upon  any  such  vague  inferences? 


152  LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Now,  as  ever,  I  wish  not  to  misrepresent  Judge  Douglas's 
position,  question  his  motives,  or  do  aught  that  can  be  person- 
ally offensive  to  him.  Whenever,  if  ever,  he  and  we  can  come 
tooether  on  principle,  so  that  our  great  cause  may  have  assis- 
tance from  his  great  ability,  I  hope  to  have  interposed  no 
adventitipus  obstacle. 

But  clearly,  he  is  not  now  with  us — he  does  not  pretend  to 

1)0 he  does  not  promise  ever  to  be.     Our  cause,  then,  must  be 

intrusted  to,  and  conducted  by  its  own  undoubted  friends — 
those  whose  hands  are  free,  whose  hearts  are  in  the  work— who 
do  care  for  the  result. 

Two  years  ago  the  Republicans  of  the  nation  mustered  over 
thirteen  hundred  thousand  strong.  We  did  this  under  the 
single  impulse  of  resistance  to  a  common  danger,  with  every 
estermJ  circumstance  against  .us.  Of  strange,  discordant,  and 
even  hostile  elements,  we  gathered  from  the  four  winds,  and 
formed  and  fought  the  battle  through,  under  the  constant  hot 
fire  of  a  disciplined,  proud  and  pampered  enemy.  Did  we 
brave  all  then  to  falter  now  ? — now — when  that  same  enemy  is 
wavering,  dissevered  and  belligerent? 

The  r'esultis  not  doubtful.  We  shall  not  fail— if  we  stand 
firm,  we  shall  not  fail.  Wise  counsels  may  accelerate  or  mistakes 
delay  it,  but,  sooner  or  later,  the  victory  is  sure  to  come. 

Mr.  DouMas,  having  lingered  for  more  than  three  weeks  on 
his  way  homeward,   preparing  for  the  struggle  before  him, 
arrived  in  Chicago  on  the  9th  of  July,  amid  the  most  showy 
demonstrations  of  his  friends.     He  made  a  long  speech  on 
the  occasion,  which  Mr.  Lincoln  was  present  to  hear.     Doug- 
las claimed  great  credit  as  having  defeated  the  President's 
Leeompton   policy,  and  imperiously  returned  thanks  to  the 
Republicans  for   "  coming  up  manfully  and  sustaining  "  him 
and  his  little  band  in  opposition  to  the  Administration  — a 
course,  certainly,  for  which  the  Republican  party  deserved  no 
special  thanks,  as  it  required  of  them  no  sacrifice  of  either 
consistency  or  partizan  fellowship.     Subsequently  he  charged 
an  alliance  between  the  Republicans  and  the  Administration 
party  for  his  defeat.     He   took   care   again   to  avow  an  utter 
indifference  as  to  whether  Kansas  should  be  slave  soil  or  free 
Boil,   only  asking   that  the  popular  majority  should   prevail. 
At  length  he  came  to  the  great  opening  speech  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, which  had  been  carefully  pondered  during  the  last  three 
weeks. 


LIKE    OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  153 

"  I  have  observed,"  he  said  vrith  condescending  assurance, 
"  I  have  observed  from  the  public  prints,  that  but  a  few  days 
ago  the  Republican  party  of  the  State  of  Illinois  assembled 
in  convention  at  Springfield,  and  not  only  laid  down  their 
platform,  but  nominated  a  candidate  for  the  United  States 
Senate  as  my  successor.  I  take  great  pleasure  in  saying  that 
I  have  known,  personally  and  intimately,  for  about  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  the  worthy  gentleman  who  has  been  nominated 
for  my  place ;  and  I  wiil  say  that  I  regard  him  as  a  kind, 
amiable  and  intelligent  gentleman,  a  good  citizen,  and  an  hon- 
orable opponent;  and  whatever  issue  I  may  have  with  him 
will  be  of  principle,  and  not  involving  personalities."  He 
then  proceeded  to  specify  his  two  chief  points  of  attack  on 
Mr.  Lincoln,  after  citing  a  portion  of  the  first  paragraph  of 
his  Springfield  speech.  Mr.  Douglas  endeavored  thus  to  put 
his  opponent  in  a  false  position,  by  selecting  sentences  out  of 
their  connection,  and  imputing  to  them  a  perverted  meaning. 
His  first  point  he  thus  states : 

In  other  words,  Mr.  Lincoln  asserts  as  a  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  this  Government,  that  there  must  be  uniformity  in 
the  local  laws  and  domestic  institutions  of  each  and  all  the 
States  of  the  Union,  and  he  therefore  invites  all  the  non- 
slaveholding  States  to  band  together,  organize  as  one  body, 
and  make  war  upon  slavery  in  Kentucky,  upon  slavery  in 
A^irginia,  upon  slavery  in  the  Carolinas,  upon  slavery  in  all 
of  the  slaveholding  States  in  this  Union,  and  to  persevere  in 
that  war  until  it  shall  be  exterminated.  He  then  notifies  the 
slaveholding  States  to  stand  toa;ether  as  a  unit  and  make  an 
aggressive  war  upon  the  free  States  of  this  Union,  with  a  view 
of  establishing  slavery  in  them  all;  of  forcing  it  upon  Illi- 
nois, of  forcing  it  upon  New  York,  upon  New  England,  and 
upon  every  other  free  State,  and  that  they  shall  keep  up  the 
warfare  until  it  has  been  formally  established  in  them  all.  In 
other  words,  Mr.  Lincoln  advocates  boldly  and  clearly  a  war 
of  sections,  a  war  of  the  North  against  the  South,  of  the  free 
States  against  the  slave  States  —  a  war  of  extermination  —  to 
be  continued  relentlessly  until  the  one  or  the  other  should  be 
subdued,  and  all  the  States  shall  either  become  free  or  become 
slave. 

His  other  point  was  made  in  these  words  : 

The   other   proposition   discussed   by  Mr.  Lincoln   in   his 
14 


154  LIFE    OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

speech,  consists  in  a  crusade  against  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  on  account  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  On  this 
question,  also,  I  desire  to  say  to  you,  unequivocally,  that  I 
take  direct  and  distinct  issue  with  him.  I  have  no  warfare  to 
make  on  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  either  on 
siccount  of  that  or  any  other  decision  which  they  have  pro- 
liounced  from  that  bench.  The  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  has  provided  that  the  powers  of  Government  (and  the 
Constitution  of  each  State  has  the  same  provision)  shall  be 
divided  into  three  departments  —  executive,  legislative,  and 
judicial.  The  right  and  the  province  of  expounding  the 
Constitution,  and  constructing  the  law,  is  vested  in  the  judi- 
ciary established  by  the  Constitution.  As  a  lawyer,  I  foel  at 
liberty  to  appear  before  the  court  and  controvert  any  principle 
of  law  while  the  question  is  pending  before  the  tribunal ;  but 
when  the  decision  is  made,  my  private  opinion,  your  opinion, 
all  other  opinions,  must  yield  to  the  majesty  of  that  authori- 
tative adjudication. 

Later  in  the  same  speech,  Mr.  Douglas  said  on  this  head : 

On  the  other  point,  Mr.  Lincoln  goes  for  a  warfare  upon 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  because  of  their 
decision  in  the  Dred  Scott  case.  I  yield  obedience  to  the 
decisions  of  that  court  —  to  the  final  determination  of  the 
hi"-hest  judicial  tribunal  known  to  our  Constitution.  He 
objects  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision  because  it  does  not  put  the 
neo-ro  in  the  possession  of  the  rights  of  citizenship  on  an 
equality  with  the  white  man.  I  am  opposed  to  negro  equal- 
ity. I  repeat  that  this  nation  is  a  white  people  —  a  people 
composed  of  European  descendants  —  a  people  that  have 
established  this  Government  for  themselves  and  their  pos- 
terity, and  I  am  in  favor  of  preserving  not  only  the  purity  of 
the  biood,  but  the  purity  of  the  Government,  from  any  mix- 
ture or  amalgamation  with  inferior  races.  I  have  seen  the 
effects  of  this  mixture  of  superior  and  inferior  races  — this 
amalgamation  of  white  men  and  Indians  and  negroes;  we 
havelseen  it  in  Mexico,  in  Central  America,  in  South  America, 
and  in  all  the  Spanish-American  States,  and  its  result  has 
been  defeneration,  demoralization,  and  degradation  below  the 
capacity" for  self-government. 

How  completely,  yet  artfully,  the  positions  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
were  misrepresented  in  these  extracts,  will  partly  appear  from 
rcadino-  his  speech  made  at  Springfield  on  the  2Gth  of  June, 
1857.  These  perversions  were  completely  disposed  of  in  Mr. 
Lincoln's  reply,  at  Chicago,   on   the  following  evening,  July 


LIFE    OF    ABRAHAJI    LINCOLX.  155 

10th.  An  intense  eagerness  to  hear  his  answer  drew  together 
a  great  crowd,  and  the  reception  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  on  his 
appearance,  was  most  enthusiastic,  the  applause  continuing  for 
several  minutes. 

MR.  LINCOLN'S  REPLY  TO  DOUGLAS. 
(At   Chicago,  on  the  evening  of  July  10,  1858.) 

Mr.  Lincoln  said  : 

My  Fellow-citizens  :  On  yesterday  evening,  upon  the 
occasion  of  the  reception  given  to  Senator  Douglas,  I  was 
furnished  with  a  seat  very  convenient  for  hearing  him,  and 
was  otherwise  very  courteously  treated  by  him  and  his  friends, 
for  which  I  thank  him  and  them.  During  the  course  of  his 
remarks  my  name  was  mentioned  in  such  a  way  as,  I  suppose, 
renders  it  at  least  not  improper  that  I  should  make  some  sort 
of  reply  to  him.  I  shall  not  attempt  to  follow  him  in  the 
precise  order  in  which  he  addressed  the  assembled  multitude 
upon  that  occasion,  though  I  shall  perhaps  do  so  in  the  main. 

THE    ALLEGED   ALLIANCE. 

There  was  one  question  to  which  he  asked  the  attention  of 
the  crowd,  which  I  deem  of  somewhat  less  importance — at 
least  of  propriety  for  me  to  dwell  upon — than  the  others, 
which  he  brought  in  near  the  close  of  his  speech,  and  which 
I  think  it  would  not  be  entirely  proper  for  me  to  omit  attend- 
ing to,  and  yet  if  I  were  not  to  give  some  attention  to  it  now, 
I  should  probably  forget  it  altogether.  While  I  am  upon 
this  subject,  allow  me  to  say  that  I  do  not  intend  to  indulge 
in  that  inconvenient  mode  sometimes  adopted  in  public 
speaking,  of  reading  from  documents ;  but  I  shall  depart 
from  that  rule  so  far  as  to  read  a  little  scrap  from  his  speech, 
which  notices  this  first  topic  of  which  I  shall  speak — that  is, 
provided  I  can  find  it  in  the  paper.  [Examines  the  morning's 
paper.] 

"  I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  appeal  to  the  people  against 
the  combination  that  has  been  made  against  me  !  the  Repub- 
lican leaders  having  formed  an  alliance,  an  unholy  and 
unnatural  alliance,  with  a  portion  of  unscrupulous  federal 
office-holders.  I  intend  to  fight  that  allied  army  wherever  I 
meet  them.  I  know  they  deny  the  alliance,  but  yet  these  men 
who  are  trying  to  divide  the  Democratic  party  for  the  purpose 
of  electing  a  Republican  Senator  in  my  place,  are  just  as 
much  the  agents  and  tools  of  the  supporters  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 
Hence  I  shall  deal  with  this  allied  army  just  as  the  Russians 
dealt  with  the  allies  at  Sebastopol — that  is,  the  Russians  did 


156  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

not  stop  to  inquire,  ^v^^en  they  fired  a  broadside,  whether  it 
hit  an  Englishman,  a  Frenchman,  or  a  Turk.  Nor  will  I  stop 
to  inquire,  nor  shall  I  hesitate,  whether  my  blows  shall  hit 
these  Republican  leaders  or  their  allies,  who  are  holding  the 
federal  offices  and  yet  acting  in  concert  with  them." 

Well,  now,  gentlemen,  is  not  that  very  alarming?  Just  to 
think  of  it !  right  at  the  outset  of  his  canvass,  I,  a  poor,  kind, 
amiable,  intelligent  gentleman,  I  am  to  be  slain  in  this  way. 
Why,  my  friends,  the  Judge,  is  not  only,  as  it  turns  out,  not 
a  dead  lion,  nor  even  a  living  one — he  is  the  rugged  llussian 
Bear  !     [Laughter  and  applause.] 

But  if  they  will  have  it — for  he  says  that  we  deny  it — that 
there  is  any  such  alliance,  as  he  says  there  is — and  I  don't 
propose  hanging  very  much  upon  this  question  of  veracity — 
but  if  he  will  have  it  that  there  is  such  an  alliance — that  the 
Administration  men  and  we  are  allied,  and  we  stand  in  the 
attitude  of  English,  French  and  Turk,  he  occupying  the 
position  of  the  Russian,  in  that  case,  I  beg  that  he  will  indulge 
us  v?hile  we  b;irelv  su2;a;est  to  him  that  these  allies  took 
Sebastopol.     [Great  applause.] 

Gentlemen,  only  a  few  more  words  as  to  this  alliance.  For 
my  part,  I  have  to  say,  that  whether  there  be  such  an  alliance, 
depends,  so  far  as  I  know,  upon  what  may  be  a  right  defini- 
tion of  the  term  alliance.  If  for  the  Bepublican  party  to  see 
the  other  great  party  to  which  they  are  opposed  divided 
among  themselves,  and  not  try  to  stop  the  division  and  rather 
be  glad  of  it— ^if  that  is  an  alliance,  I  confess  1  am  in ;  but  if 
it  is  meant  to  be  said  that  the  Republicans  had  formed  an 
alliance  going  beyond  that,  by  which  there  is  contribution  of 
money  or  sacrifice  of  principle  on  the  one  side  or  the  other, 
so  far  as  the  Republican  party  is  concerned,  if  Ihere  be  any 
such  thing,  I  protest  that  I  neither  know  any  thing  of  it,  nor 
do  I  believe  it.  I  will,  however,  say — as  I  think  this  branch 
of  the  argument  is  lugged  in — I  would  before  I  leave  it,  state, 
for  the  benefit  of  those  concerned,  that  one  of  those  same 
Buchanan  men  did  once  tell  me  of  an  argument  that  he  made 
for  his  opposition  to  Judge  Douglas.  He  said  that  a  friend 
of  our  Senator  Douglas  had  been  talking  to  him,  and  had 
among  other  things  said  to  him  :  "  Why,  you  don't  want  to 
beat  Douglas?"  "  res,"  said  he,  "I  do  want  to  beat  him, 
and  I  will  tell  you  why.  I  believe  his  original  Nebraska  Bill 
was  right  in  the  abstract,  but  it  was  wrong  in  the  time  that  it 
was  brought  forward.  It  was  wrong  in  the  application  to  a 
Territory  in  regard  to  which  the  question  had  been  settled;  it 
was  brought  forward  at  a  time  when  nobody  asked  him  ;  it  waa 
tendered  to  the  South  when  the  South  had  not  asked  for  it, 


LIFE    OP   ABRAUAM    LINCOLN.  157 

but  when  they  could  not  well  refuse  it;  and  for  this  same 
reason  he  forced  that  question  upon  our  party  ;  it  has  sunk 
the  best  men  all  over  the  nation,  everywhere  ;  and  now  when 
our  President,  struggling  with  the  difficulties  of  this  man's 
getting  up,  has  reached  the  very  hardest  point  to  turn  in  the 
case,  he  deserts  him,  and  I  am  for  putting  him  where  he  will 
trouble  us  no  more." 

Now,  gentlemen,  that  is  not  my  argument — that  is  not  my 
argument  at  all.  I  have  only  been  stating  to  you  the  argu- 
ment of  a  Buchanan  man.  You  will  judge  if  there  is  any 
force  in  it. 

"WHAT   IS   POPULAR   SOVEREIGNTY. 

Popular  sovereignty  !  everlasting  popular  sovereignty  !  Let 
us  for  a  moment  inquire  into  this  vast  matter  of  popular 
sovereignty.  What  is  popular  sovereignty  ?  We  recollect 
that  in  an  early  period  in  the  history  of  this  struggle,  there  was 
another  name  for  the  same  i\\\n^— Squatter  Sovcreignfi/.  It 
was  not  exactly  Popular  Sovereignty,  but  Squatter  Sover- 
eignty. What  do  those  terms  mean  ?  What  do  those  terms 
mean  when  used  now?  And  vast  qredit  is  taken  by  our 
friend,  the  Judge,  in  regard  to  his  support  of  it,  when  he 
declares  the  last  years  of  his  life  have  been,  and  all  the  future 
years  of  his  life  shall  be,  devoted  to  this  matter  of  popular 
sovereignty.  What  is  it?  Why,  it  is  the  sovereignty  of  the 
people!  What  was  Squatter  Sovereignty?  I  suppose  if  it 
had  any  significance  at  all  it  was  the  right  of  the  people  to 
govern  themselves,  to  be  sovereign  in  their  own  affairs  while 
they  were  squatted  down  in  a  country  not  their  own,  while 
they  had  squatted  on  a  Territory  that  did  not  belong  to  them, 
in  the  sense  that  a  State  belongs  to  the  people  who  inhabit 
it — when  it  belonged  to  the  nation — such  right  to  govern 
themselves  was  called  "  Squatter  Sovereignty." 

Now  I  wish  you  to  mark.  What  has  become  of  that  Squat- 
ter Sovereignty?  What  has  become  of  it?  Can  you  get  any 
body  to  tell  you  now  that  the  people  of  a  Territory  have  any 
authority  to  govern  themselves,  in  regard  to  this  mooted 
question  of  slavery,  before  they  form  a  State  Constitution  ? 
No  such  thing  at  all,  although  there  is  a  general  running 
fire,  and  although  there  has  been  a  hurrah  made  in  every  speech 
on  that  side,  assuming  that  policy  had  given  the  people  of  a 
Territory  the  right  to  govern  themselves  upon  this  question  ; 
yet  the  point  is  dodged.  To-duy  it  has  been  decided — no 
more  than  a  year  ago  it  was  decided  by  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  and  is  insisted  upon  to-day,  that  the  people 


158  LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

of  a  Territory  have  no  right  to  exclude  slavery  from  a  Terri- 
tory, that  if  any  one  man  chooses  to  take  slaves  into  a 
Territory,  all  the  rest  of  the  people  have  no  right  to  keep 
them  out.  This  being  so,  and  this  decision  being  made  one 
of  the  points  that  the  Judge  approved,  and  one  in  the  approval 
of  ■which  he  says  he  means  to  keep  me  down — intt  me  down  I 
should  not  say,  for  I  have  never  been  up.  He  says  he  is  in 
favor  of  it,  and  sticks  to  it,  and  expects  to  "win  his  battle  on 
that  decision,  which  says  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
Squatter  Sovereignty  ;  but  that  any  one  man  may  take  slaves 
into  a  Territory,  and  all  the  other  men  in  the  Territory  may 
be  opposed  to  it,  and  yet  by  reason  of  the  Constitution  they 
can  not  prohibit  it.  When  that  is  so,  how  much  is  left  of  this 
va?t  matter  of  Squatter  Sovereignty  I  should  like  to  know? 
[A  voice — "It  is  all  gone."] 

When  we  get  back,  we  get  to  the  point  of  the  right  of  the 
people  to  make  a  Constitution.  Kansas-  was  settled,  for 
example,  in  1854.  It  was  a  Territory  yet,  without  having 
formed  a  Constitution,  in  a  very  regular  way,  for  three  years. 
All  this  time  negro  slavery  could  be  taken  in  by  any  few 
individuals,  and  by  that  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  which 
the  Judge  approves,  all  the  rest  of  the  people  can  not  keep  it 
out;  but  when  they  come  to  make  a  Constitution  they  may 
say  they  will  not  have  slavery.  But  it  is  there  ;  they  are 
obliged  to  tolerate  it  some  way,  and  all  experience  shows  it 
will  be  so — for  they  will  not  take  negro  slaves  and  abso- 
lutely deprive  the  owners  of  them.  All  experience  shows 
tliis  to  be  so.  All  that  space  of  time  that  runs  from  the 
beginning  of  the  settlement  of  the  Territory  until  there  is 
sufficiency  of  people  to  make  a  State  Constitution — all  that 
portion  of  time  popular  sovereignty  is  given  up.  The  seal  is 
absolutely  put  down  upon  it  by  the  Court  decision,  and  Judge 
Douglas  puts  his  on  the  top  of  that,  yet  he  is  appealing  to 
the  people  to  give  him  vast  credit  for  his  devotion  to  popular 
sovereignty.     [Applause.] 

Again,  when  we  get  to  the  question  of  the  right  of  the 
people  to  form  a  State  Constitution  as  they  please,  to  form  it 
with  slavery  or  without  slavery — if  that  is  any  thing  new,  I 
confess  I  don't  know  it.  Has  there  ever  been  a  time  when 
any  body  said  that  any 'other  than  the  people  of  a  Territory 
itself  should  form  a  Constitution  ?  What  is  now  in  it  that 
Judge  Douglas  should  have  fought  several  years  of  his  life, 
and  pledge  himself  to  fight  all  the  remaining  years  of  his 
life  for  ?  Can  Judge  Douglas  find  any  body  on  earth  that 
said  that  any  body    else    should  form    a  Constitution  for  a 


LIFE    OP    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  159 

people?  [A  voice,  "  Yes."]  Well,  I  should  like  you  to  name 
hiin ;  I  should  like  to  know  who  he  was.  [Same  voice, 
"John   Calhoun."] 

Mr.  Lincoln — No,  Sir,  I  never  heard  of  even  John  Calhoun 
saying  such  a  thing.  He  insisted  on  the  same  principle  as 
Judge  Douglas ;  but  his  mode  of  applying  it  in  fact,  was 
wrong.  It  is  enough  for  my  purpose  to  ask  this  crowd,  when 
ever  a  Republican  said  anything  against  it  ?  They  never  said 
anything  against  it,  but  they  have  constantly  spoken  for  it; 
and  whosoever  will  undertake  to  examine  the  platform,  and 
the  speeches  of  responsible  men  of  the  party,  and  of  irre- 
sponsible men,  too,  if  you  please,  will  be  unable  to  find  one 
word  from  anybody  in  the  Republican  ranks,  opposed  to  that 
Popular  Sovereignty  which  Judge  Douglas  thinks  that  he  ha3 
invented.  [Applause.]  I  suppose  that  Judge  Douglas  will 
claim  in  a  little  while,  that  he  is  the  inventor  of  the  idea  that 
the  people  should  govern  themselves ;  that  nobody  ever 
thought  of  such  a  thing  until  he  brought  it  forward.  We  do 
remember,  that  in  that  old  Declaration  of  Independence,  it  is 
said  that  "  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  all 
men  are  created  equal ;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator 
with  certain  inalienable  rights ;  that  among  these  are  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness ;  that  to  secure  these 
rights,  governments  are  instituted  among  men,  deriving  their 
just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed."  There  is  the 
origin  of  Popular  Sovereignty.  [Loud  applause.]  Who, 
thea,  shall  come  in  at  this  day  and  claim  that  he  invented  it? 

[After  referring,  in  appropriate  terms,  to  the  credit  claimed 
by  Douglas  for  defeating  the  Lecompton  policy,  Mr.  Lincola 
proceeds] : 

I  defy  you  to  show  a  printed  resolution  passed  in  a  Demo- 
cratic meeting — I  take  it  upon  myself  to  defy  any  man  to 
show  a  printed  resolution  of  a  Democratic  meeting,  large  or 
small,  in  favor  of  Judge  Trumbull,  or  any  of  the  five  to  one 
Republicans  who  beat  that  bill.  Every  thing  must  be  for  the 
Democrats  !  They  did  every  thing,  and  the  five  to  the  one 
that  really  did  the  thing,  they  snub  over,  and  they  do  not 
seem  to  remember  that  they  have  an  existence  upon  the  face 
of  the  earth. 

LINCOLN    AND    DOUGLAS — THE    PERVERTED   ISSUES. 

Gentlemen,  I  fear  that  I  shall  become  tedious.  I  leave  thia 
branch  of  the  subject  to  take  hold  of  another.  I  take  up  that 
part  of  Judge  Douglas's  speech  in  which  he  respectfully 
attended  to  me. 


160  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    MNOOLN. 

JuJge  Douglas  made  two  points  upon  my  recent  speech  at 
Springfield.  He  says  they  are  to  be  the  issues  of  this  cam- 
paign. The  first  one  of  these  points  he  bases  upon  the  lan- 
guage in  a  speech  which  I  delivered  at  Springfield,  which  I 
believe  I  can  quote  correctly  from  memory.  I  said  there  that 
"  we  are  now  fiir  on  in  the  fiitli  year  since  a  policy  was  instituted 
for  the  avowed  object,  and  with  the  confident  promise,  of  put- 
tingan  end  to  slavery  agitation  ;  under  the  operation  of  that  pol- 
icy, that  agitation  had  not  only  not  ceased,  but  had  constantly 
augmented.  I  believe  it  will  not  cease  until  a  crisis  shall 
have  been  reached  and  passed.  A  house  divided  against  itself 
can  not  stand.  I  believe  this  Government  can  not  endure  per- 
manently half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union 
to  be  dissolved" — I  am  quoting  fi-om  my  speech — "I  do  not 
expect  the  house  to  fall,  but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be 
divided.  It  will  come  all  one  thing  or  the  other.  Either  the 
opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  spread  of  it,  and  place  it 
where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the 
course  of  ultimate  extinction,  or  its  advocates  will  push  it 
forward  until  it  shall  have  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the 
States,  North  as  well  as  South." 

In  this  paragraph  which  I  have  quoted  in  your  hearing,  and 
to  which  I  ask  the  attention  of  all,  Judge  Douglas  thinks  he 
discovers  great  political  heresy.  I  want  your  attention  par- 
ticularl}'  to  what  he  has  inferred  from  it.  He  says  I  am  in 
favlDr  of  making  all  the  States  of  this  Union  uniform  in  all 
their  internal  regulations;  that  in  all  their  domestic  concerns 
I  am  in  favor  of  making  them  entirely  uniform.  He  draws 
this  inference  from  the  language  I  have  quoted  to  you.  He 
says  that  I  am  in  favor  of  making  war  by  the  North  upon  the 
South  for  the  extinction  of  slavery  ;  that  I  am  also  in  favor  of 
inviting,  as  he  expresses  it,  the  South  to  a  war  upon  the  North, 
for  the  purpose  of  nationalizing  slavery.  Now,  it  is  singular 
enough,  if  you  will  carefully  read  that  passage  over,  that  I  did 
not  say  that  I  was  in  favor  of  any  thing  in  it.  I  only  said 
what  I  expected  would  take  place.  I  made  a  prediction  only — 
it  may  have  been  a  foolish  one  perhaps.  I  did  not  even  say 
that  I  desired  that  slavery  should  be  put  in  course  of  ultimate 
extinction.  I  do  say  so  now,  however,  so  there  need  be  no 
longer  any  difiiculty  about  that.  It  may  be  written  down  in 
the  next  speech. 

Gentlemen,  Judge  Douglas  informed  you  that  this  speech  of 
mine  was  probably  carefully  prepared.  I  admit  that  it  was. 
I  am  not  master  of  language  ;  I  have  not  a  fine  education  ;  I 
am  not  capable  of  entering  into  a  disquisition  upon  dialectics, 
as  I  believe  you  call  it ;  but  I  do  not  believe  the  language  I 


LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  161 

employed  bears  any  such  construction  as  Judge  Douglas  puts 
upon  it.  But  I  don't  care  about  a  quibble  in  regard  to  words. 
I  know  what  I  meant,  and  I  will  not  leave  this  crowd  in 
doubt,  if  I  can  explain  it  to  them,  what  I  really  meant  in  the 
use  of  that  paragraph. 

I  am  not,  in  the  first  place,  unaware  that  this  Government 
has  endured  eighty-two  years,  half  slave  and  half  free.  I 
know  that.  I  am  tolerably  well  acquainted  with  the  history 
of  the  country,  and  I  know  that  it  has  endured  eighty-two 
years,  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  believe — and  that  is  what  I 
meant  to  allude  to  there — 1  believe  it  has  endured,  because 
during  all  that  time,  until  the  introduction  of  the  Nebraska 
bill,  the  public  mind  did  rest  all  the  time  in  the  belief  that 
slavery  was  in  course  of  ultimate  extinction.  That  was  what 
gave  us  the  rest  that  we  had  through  that  period  of  eighty-two 
years ;  at  least,  so  I  believe.  I  have  always  hated  slavery,  I 
think,  as  much  as  any  Abolitionist.  I  have  been  an  Old 
Line  Whig.  I  have  always  hated  it,  but  I  have  always  been 
quiet  about  it  until  this  new  era  of  the  introduction  of  the 
Nebraska  Bill  began.  I  always  believed  that  everybody  was 
against  it,  and  that  it  was  in  course  of  ultimate  extinction. 
[Pointing  to  Mr.  Browning,  who  stood  near  by  :]  Browning 
thought  so  ;  the  great  mass  of  the  nation  have  rested  in  the 
belief  that  slavery  was  in  course  of  ultimate  extinction. 
They  had  reason  so  to  believe. 

The  adoption  of  the  Constitution  and  its  attendant  history 
led  the  people  to  believe  so  ;  and  that  such  was  the  belief  of 
the  framcrs  of  the  Constitution  itself.  Why  did  those  old 
men,  about  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution, 
decree  that  slavery  should  not  go  into  the  new  territory,  where 
it  had  not  already  gone  ?  Why  declare  that  within  twenty 
years  the  African  slave  trade,  by  which  slaves  are  supplied, 
might  be  cut  oif  by  Congress  ?  Why  were  all  these  acts  ?  I 
might  enumerate  more  of  such  acts — but  enough.  What  were 
they  but  a  clear  indication  that  the  framers  of  the  Constitution 
intended  and  expected  the  ultimate  extinction  of  that  institu- 
tion ?  [Cheers.]  And  now,  when  I  say,  as  I  said  in  this 
speech  that  Judge  Douglas  has  quoted  from,  when  I  say  that  I 
think  the  opponents  of  slavery  will  resist  the  further  spread  of 
it,  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  with  the  belief 
that  it  is  in  course  of  ultimate  extinction,  I  only  mean  to  say, 
that  they  will  place  it  where  the  founders  of  this  Government 
originally  placed  it. 

I  have  said  a  hundred  times,  and  I  have  no  inclination  to 
take  it  back,  tliat  T  believe  there  is  no  right,  and  ought  to  be 
no   inclination   in  the   people  of  the  free   States  to  enter  into 


]{J2  LIFE    OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

the  slave  States,  and  to  interfere  with  the  question  of  slavery 
at  all.  I  have  said  that  always.  Judge  Douglas  has  heard 
me  say  it — if  not  quite  a  hundred  times,  at  least  as  good  as  a 
hundred  times;  and  when  it  is  said  that  I  am  in  favor  of 
interfering  with  slavery  where  it  exists,  I  know  that  it  is 
unwarranted  by  anything  I  have  ever  intended,  and,  as  I 
believe,  by  anything  I  have  ever  said.  If,  by  any  means,  I 
have  ever  used  language  which  could  fairly  be  so  construed 
(as,  however,  I  believe  I  never  have),  1  now  correct  it. 

So  much,  then,  for  the  inference  that  Judge  Douglas  draws, 
that  I  am  in  favor  of  setting  the  sections  at  war  with  one 
another.  I  know  that  I  never  meant  any  such  thing,  and  I 
believe  that  no  fair  mind  can  infer  any  such  thing  from  any- 
thing I  have  ever  said. 

Now  in  relation  to  his  inference  that  I  am  in  favor  of  a 
general  consolidation  of  all  the  local  institutions  of  the  various 
States.  I  will  attend  to  that  for  a  little  while,  and  try  to 
inquire,  if  I  can,  how  on  earth  it  could  be  that  any  man  could 
draw  such  an  inference  from  any  thing  I  said.  I  have  said, 
very  many  times,  in  Judge  Douglas's  hearing,  that  no  man 
believed  more  than  I  in  the  principle  of  self-government ; 
that  it  lies  at  the  bottom  of  all  my  ideas  of  just  government, 
from  betiinning  to  end.  I  have  denied  that  his  use  of  that 
term  applies  properly.  But  for  the  thing  itself,  I  deny  that 
any  man  has  ever  gone  ahead  of  me  in  his  devotion  to  the 
principle,  whatever  he  may  have  done  in  efficiency  in  advocat- 
ing it.  I  think  that  I  have  said  it  in  your  hearing — that  I 
believe  each  individual  is  naturally  entitled  to  do  as  he  pleases 
with  himself  and  with  the  fruit  of  his  labor,  so  fiir  as  it  in 
no  wiao  interferes  with  any  other  man's  rights — [applause] 
that  each  community,  as  a  State,  has  a  right  to  do  exactly  as 
it  pleases  with  all  the  concerns  within  that  State  that  inter- 
fere with  the  right  of  no  other  State,  and  that  the  General 
Government,  upon  principle,  has  no  right  to  interfere  wit-h  any 
thing  other  than  that  general  class  of  things  that  does  concern 
the  whole.  I  have  said  that  at  all  times.  I  have  said  as  illus- 
trations, that  I  do  not  believe  in  the  right  of  Illinois  to  inter- 
fere  with  the  cranberry  laws  of  Indiana,  the  oyster  laws  of 
Virginia,  or  the  liquor  laws  of  Maine.  I  have  said  these 
things  over  and  over  again,  and  I  repeat  them  here  as  my 
sentiments.         '-i"-         ^-         ^         ^         o         -;-         ^ir-         * 

So  much  then  as  to  my  disposition — my  wish — to  have  all 
the  State  Legislatures  blotted  out,  and  to  have  one  consolidated 
government,  and  a  uniformity  of  domestic  regulations  in  all 
the  States;  by  which  I  suppose  it  is  meant,  if  we  raise  corn 
here,  we  must   make   sugar-cane  grow  here  too,  and  we  must 


LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  163 

.make  those  which  grow  North  grow  in  the  South.  All  this 
I  suppose  he  understands  I  am  in  favor  of  doing.  Now, 
so  much  for  all  this  nonsense — for  I  must  call  it  so.  The 
Judge  can  have  no  issue  with  me  on  a  question  of  established 
uniformity  in  the  domestic  regulations  of  the  States. 

DRED   SCOTT   DECISION. 

A  little  now  on  the  other  point — the  Dred  Scott  decision. 
Another  of  the  issues  he  says  that  is  to  be  made  with  me,  is 
upon  his  devotion  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  and  my  opposi- 
tion to  it. 

I  have  expressed  heretofore,  and  I  now  repeat  my  opposi- 
tion to  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  but  I  should  be  allowed  to 
state  the  nature  of  that  opposition,  and  I  ask  your  indulgence 
while  I  do  so.  What  is  fairly  implied  by  the  term  Judge 
Douglas  has  used,  "resistance  to  the  decision?"  I  do  not 
resist  it.  If  I  wanted  to  take  Dred  Scott  from  his  master,  I 
would  be  interfering  with  property,  and  that  terrible  difficulty 
that  Judge  Douglas  speaks  of,  of  interfering  with  property 
would  arise.  But  I  am  doing  no  such  thing  as  that,  but  all 
that  I  am  doing  is  refusing  to  obey  it  as  a  political  rule.  If 
I  were  in  Congress,  and  a  vote  should  come  up  on  a  question 
whether  slavery  should  be  prohibited  in  a  new  Territory,  in 
spite  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  I  would  vote  that  it  should. 

That  is  what  I  would  do.  Judge  Douglas  said  last  night, 
that  before  the  decision  he  might  advance  his  opinion,  and  it 
might  be  contrary  to  the  decision  when  it  was  made;  but  after 
it  was  made  he  would  abide  by  it  until  it  was  reversed.  Just 
so!  We  let  this  property  abide  by  the  decision,  but  we  will 
try  to  reverse  that  decision.  [Loud  applause.]  We  will  try 
to  put  it  where  Judge  Douglas  will  not  object,  lor  he  says  he 
will  obey  it  until  it  is  reversed.  Somebody  has  to  reverse  that 
decision,  since  it  was  made,  and  we  mean  to  reverse  it,  and  we 
mean  to  do  it  peaceably. 

What  are  the  uses  of  decisions  of  courts?  They  have  two 
uses.  As  rules  of  property  they  have  two  uses.  First — they 
decide  upon  the  question  before  the  court.  They  decide  in 
this  case  that  Dred  Scott  is  a  slave.  Nobody  resists  that.  Not 
only  that,  but  they  say  to  every  body  else,  that  persons  stand- 
ing just  as  Dred  Scott  stands,  is  as  he  is.  That  is,  they  say 
that  when  a  question  comes  up  upon  another  person,  it  will  be 
EC  decided  again  unless  the  court  decides  in  another  way,  unless 
the  court  overrules  its  decision.  [Ilenewed  applause.]  Well, 
wc  mean  to  do  what  we  can  to  have  the  court  decide  the  other 
way.     That  is  one  thing  we  mean  to  try  to  do. 


164  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

The  sacredness  that  Judge  Douglas  throws  around  this 
decision,  is  a  degree  of  sacredness  that  has  never  been  before 
thrown  around  an}^  other  decision.  I  have  never  heard  of 
such  a  thing.  Why,  decisions  apparently  contrary  to  that 
decision,  or  that  good  lawyers  thought  were  contrary  to  that 
decision,  have  been  made  by  that  very  court  before.  It  is 
the  first  of  its  kind  ;  it  is  an  astonisher  in  legal  history.  It  is 
a  new  wonder  of  the  world.  It  is  based  upon  falsehoods 
in  the  main  as  to  the  facts  —  allegations  of  facts  upon 
which  it  stands  are  not  facts  at  all  in  many  instances,  and 
no  decision  made  on  any  question — the  first  instance  of  a 
decision  made  under  so  many  unfavorable  circumstances — thus 
placed,  has  ever  been  held  by  the  profession  as  law,  and  it  has 
always  needed  confirmation  before  the  lawyers  regarded  it  as 
settled  law.  But  Judge  Douglas  will  have  it  that  all  hands 
must  take  this  extraordinary  decision,  made  under  these  extra- 
ordinary circumstances,  and  give  their  vote  in  Congress  in 
accordance  with  it,  yield  to  it  and  obey  it  in  every  possible 
sense.  Circumstances  alter  cases.  Do  not  gentlemen  here 
remember  the  case  of  that  same  Supreme  Court,  twenty-five  or 
thirty  years  ago,  deciding  that  a  National  Bank  was  Constitu- 
tional? I  ask,  if  somebody  does  not  remember  that  a  National 
Bank  was  declared  to  be  Constitutional  ?  Such  is  the  truth, 
whether  it  be  remembered  or  not.  The  Bank  charter  ran 
out,  and  a  re-charter  was  granted  by  Congress.  That 
re-chartcr  was  laid  before  General  Jackson.  It  was  urged 
upon  him,  when  he  denied  the  Constitutionality  of  the  Bank, 
that  the  Supreme  Court  had  decided  that  it  was  Constitutional  ; 
and  that  General  Jackson  then  said  that  the  Supreme  Court 
had  no  right  to  lay  down  a  rule  to  govern  a  co-ordinate  branch 
of  the  Government,  the  members  of  which  had  sworn  to  sup- 
port the  Constitution — that  each  member  had  sworn  to  support 
that  Constitution  as  he  understood  it.  I  will  venture  here  to 
say,  that  I  have  heard  Judge  Douglas  say  that  he  approved  of 
General  Jackson  for  that  act.  What  has  now  become  of  all 
his  tirade  about  "  resistance  to  the  Supi-eme  Court?"     ^-     * 

THE    DECLARATION    OF    INDEPENDENCE. 

We  were  often  —  more  than  once,  at  least  —  in  the  course 
of  Judge  Douglas's  speech  last  night,  reminded  that  this 
Government  was  made  for  white  men  —  that  he  believed  it  was 
made  for  white  men.  Well,  that  is  putting  it  into  a  shape  in 
which  no  one  wants  to  deny  it;  but  the  Judge  then  goes  into  his 
passion  for  drawing  inferences  that  are  not  warranted.  I  protest, 
now  and  forever,  against  that  counterfeit  logic  which  presumes 
that  because  I  did  not  want  a  ncsro  woman  for  a  slave,  I  do 


LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  165 

necessarily  want  her  for  a  wife.  My  understanding  is  that  I 
need  not  have  her  for  either ;  but,  as  God  made  us  separate, 
we  can  leave  one  another  alone,  and  do  one  another  much 
good  thereby.  There  are  white  men  enough  to  marry  all  th3 
white  women,  and  enough  black  men  to  marry  all  the 
black  women,  and  in  God's  name  let  them  be  so  married. 
The  Jud<re  resales  us  with  the  terrible  enormities  that  take 
place  by  the  mixture  of  races  ;  that  the  inferior  race  bears  the 
superior  down.  Why,  Judge,  if  you  do  not  let  them  get 
together  in  the  Territories  they  won't  mix  there. 

A.  voice  —  "  Three  cheers  for  Lincoln."  (The  cheers  were 
given  with  a  hearty  good  will.) 

Mr.  L. —  I  should  say  at  least  that  this  is  a  self-evident  truth. 

Now,  it  happens  that  we  meet  together  once  every  year, 
some  time  about  the  Fourth  of  July,  for  some  reason  or  other. 
These  Fourth  of  July  gatherings  I  suppose  have  their  uses. 
If  you  will  indulge  me,  I  will  state  what  I  suppose  to  be  som" 
of  them. 

We  are.  now  a  mighty  nation  ;  we  are  thirty,  or  about  thirty 
millions  of  people,  and  we  own  and  inhabit  about  one-fifteenth 
part  of  the  dry  land  of  the  whole  earth.  We  run  our  memory 
back  over  the  pages  of  history  for  about  eighty-two  years, 
and  we  discover  that  we  were  then  a  very  small  people  in 
point  of  numbers,  vastly  inferior  to  what  we  are  now,  with  a 
vastly  less  extent  of  country,  with  vastly  less  of  every  thing 
we  deem  desirable  among  men  —  wc  look  upon  the  change  as 
exceedingly  advantageous  to  us  and  to  our  posterity,  and  we  fix 
upon  something  that  happened  away  back,  as  in  some  way  or 
other  being  connected  with  this  rise  of  prosperity.  We  find 
a  race  of  men  living  in  that  day  whom  wc  claim  as  our  fathers 
and  grandfathers ;  they  were  iron  men  ;  they  fought  for  the 
principle  that  they  were  contending  for;  and  we  understood 
that  by  what  they  then  did  it  has  followed  that  the  degree  of 
prosperity  which  we  now  enjoy  has  come  to  us.  We  hold  this 
annual  celebration  to  remind  ourselves  of  all  the  good  done 
in  this  process  of  time,  of  how  it  was  done  and  who  did  it, 
and  how  we  are  historically  connected  with  it;  and  we  go 
from  these  meetings  in  better  humor  with  ourselves  —  we  feel 
more  attached  the  one  to  the  other,  and  more  firmly  bound  to 
the  country  we  inhabit.  In  every  way  we  are  better  men  in 
the  age,  and  race,  and  country  in  which  we  live,  for  these  cel- 
ebrations. But  after  we  have  done  all  this,  we  have  not  yet 
reached  the  whole.  There  is  something  else  connected  with 
it.  We  have,  besides  these  —  men  descended  by  blood  from 
our  ancestors  —  those  among  us,  perhaps  half  our  people,  who 
are  not  descendants  at  all  of  these  men  ;  they  are  men  who 


166  LIFE    OP    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

have  come  from  Europe  —  G-erman,  Irish,  French  and  Scandi- 
navian—  men  that  have  come  from  Europe  themselves,  or 
whose  ancestors  have  come  hither  and  settled  here,  finding 
themselves  our  equals  in  all  things.  If  they  look  back 
through  this  history  to  trace  their  connection  with  those  days 
by  blood,  they  find  they  have  none  ;  they  can  not  carry  them- 
selves back  into  that  glorious  epoch  and  make  themselves  feel 
that  they  are  part  of  us  ;  but  when  they  look  through  that  old 
Declaration  of  Independence,  they  find  that  those  old  men  say 
that  "  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  all  men  are 
created  equal,"  and  then  they  feel  that  that  moral  sentiment, 
taught  on  that  day,  evidences  their  relation  to  those  men,  that 
it  is  the  father  of  all  moral  principle  in  them,  and  that  they 
have  a  right  to  claim  it  as  though  they  were  blood  of  the 
blood  and  flesh  of  the  flesh  of  the  men  who  wrote  that  Dec- 
laration [loud  and  long-continued  applause],  and  so  they  are. 
That  is  the  electric  cord  in  that  Declaration  that  links  the 
hearts  of  patriotic  and  liberty-loving  men  together,  that  will 
link  those  patriotic  hearts  as  long  as  the  love  of  freedom 
exists  in  the  minds  of  men  throughout  the  world.  [Applause.] 
Now,  sirs,  for  the  purpose  of  squaring  things  with  this  idea 
of  "  don't  care  if  slavery  is  voted  up  or  voted  down,"  for  sus- 
taining the  Dred  Scott  decision,  for  holding  that  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  did  not  mean  any  thing  at  all,  we  have 
Judge  Douglas  giving  his  exposition  of  what  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  means,  and  we  have  him  saying  that  the 
people  of  America  are  equal  to  the  people  of  England. 
According  to  his  construction,  you  Germans  are  not  connected 
with  it.  Now  I  a?k  you  in  all  soberness,  if  all  these  things, 
if  indulged  in,  if  ratified,  if  confirmed  and  indorsed,  if  taught 
to  our  children  and  repeated  to  them,  do  not  tend  to  rub  out 
the  sentiment  of  liberty  in  the  country,  and  to  transform  this 
Government  into  a  s-overnment  of  some  other  form.  These 
arguments  that  are  made,  that  the  inferior  race  are  to  be 
treated  with  as  much  allowance  as  they  are  capable  of  enjoy- 
ing; that  as  much  is  to  be  done  for  them  as  their  condition 
will  allow  —  what  are  these  arguments?  They  are  the  argu- 
ments that  Kings  have  made  for  enslaving  the  people  in  all 
ages  of  the  world.  You  will  find  that  all  the  arguments  in 
favor  of  King-craft  were  of  this  class ;  they  always  bestrode 
the  necks  of  the  people,  not  that  they  wanted  to  do  it,  but 
because  the  people  were  better  oft"  for  being  ridden.  That  is 
their  argument,  and  this  argument  of  the  Judge  is  the  same 
old  serpent  that  says:  You  work  and  I  eat,  you  toll  and  I  will 
enjoy  the  fruits  of  it.  Turn  it  whatever  way  you  will  — 
whether   it  come   from   the   mouth  of  a   King,  an  excuse  for 


LIFE    OF    /.BUAIIAM    LINrOLN.  1G7 

enslaving  the  people  of  his  country,  or  from  the  mouth  of 
men  of  one  race  as  a  reason  for  enslaving  the  men  of  another 
race,  it  is  all  the  same  old  serpent,  and  1  hold  if  that  course 
of  argumentation  that  is  made  for  the  purpose  of  convincing 
the  public  mind  that  we  should  not  care  about  this,  should  be 
granted,  it  does  not  stop  with  the  negro.  I  should  like  to 
know  if,  taking  this  old  Declaration  of  Independence,  which 
declares  that  all  men  are  equal  upon  principle,  you  begin 
making  exceptions  to  it,  where  you  will  stop?  If  one  man 
says  it  does  not  mean  a  negro,  why  not  another  say  it  does  not 
mean  some  other  man  ?  If  that  declaration  is  not  the  truth, 
let  us  get  the  statute  book,  in  which  we  find  it,  and  tear  it  out ! 
Who  is  so  bold  as  to  do  it!  If  it  is  not  true,  let  us  tear  it 
out !  [cries  of  "  no,  no  "]  ;  let  us  stick  to  it  then  ;  let  us  stand 
firmly  by  it  then.     [Applause.] 

It  may  be  argued  that  there  are  certain  conditions  that 
make  necessities  and  impose  them  upon  us,  and  to  the  extent 
that  a  necessity  is  imposed  upon  a  man,  he  must  submit  to  it. 
I  think  that  was  the  condition  in  which  we  found  ourselves 
when  we  established  this  Government.  We  had  slaves  among 
us  ;  we  could  not  get  our  Constitution  unless  we  permitted 
them  to  remain  in  slavery;  we  could  not  secure  the  good  we 
did  secure  if  we  grasped  for  more;  and  having,  by  necessity, 
submitted  to  that  much,  it  docs  not  destroy  the  principle  that 
is  the  charter  of  our  liberties.  Let  that  charter  stand  as  our 
standard. 

My  friend  has  said  to  me  that  I  am  a  poor  hand  to  quote 
Scripture.  I  will  try  it  again,  however.  It  is  said  in  one  of 
the  admonitions  of  our  Lord :  "As  your  Father  in  Heaven  is 
perfect,  be  ye  also  perfect."  The  Saviour,  I  suppose,  did  not 
expect  that  any  human  creature  could  be  perfect  as  the  Father 
in  Heaven ;  but  He  said  :  "As  your  Father  in  Heaven  is  per- 
fect, be  ye  also  perfect."  He  set  that  up  as  a  standard,  and 
he  who  did  most  toward  reaching  that  standard,  attained  the 
highest  degree  of  moral  perfection.  So  I  say  in  relation  to 
the  principle  that  all  men  are  created  equal,  let  it  be  as  nearly 
reached  as  we  can.  If  we  can  not  give  freedom  to  every  crea- 
ture, let  us  do  nothing  that  will  impose  slavery  upon  any 
other  creature.  [Applause.]  Let  us  then  turn  this  Govern- 
ment back  into  the  channel  in  which  the  framers  of  the  Con- 
stitution originally  placed  it.  Let  us  stand  firmly  by  each 
other.  If  we  do  not  do  so  we  are  turning  in  the  contrary 
direction,  that  our  friend  Judge  Douglas  proposes  —  not 
intentionally — as  working  in  the  traces  tends  to  make  this  one 
universal  slave  nation.  He  is  one  that  runs  in  that  direction, 
and  as  such  I  resist  him. 


168  LIFE    OF    ABllAHAM    LINCOLN. 

My  friends,  I  have  detained  you  about  as  long  as  I  desired 
to  do,  and  I  have  only  to  say.  let  us  discard  all  this  quibbling 
about  this  man  and  the  other  man  —  this  race  and  that  race 
and  the  other  race  being  inferior,  and  therefore  they  must  be 
placed  in  an  inferior  position  —  discarding  our  standard  that 
we  have  left  us.  Let  us  discard  all  these  things,  and  unite  as 
one  people  throughout  this  land,  until  we  shall  once  more 
stand  up  declaring  that  all  men  are  created  equal. 

My  friends,  I  could  not,  without  launching  oif  upon  some 
new  topic,  which  would  detain  you  too  long,  continue  to-night. 
I  thanic  you  for  this  most  extensive  audience  that  you  have 
furnished  me  to-night.  I  leave  you,  hoping  that  the  lamp  of 
liberty  will  burn  in  your  bosoms  until  there  shall  no  longer 
be  a  doubt  that  all  men  are  created  free  and  equal. 

Mr.  Lincoln  retired  amid  a  perfect  torrent  of  applause  and 
cheers. 

A  week  later  than  his  Chicago  speech,  Mr.  Douglas  spoko 
at  Bloomington,  in  continuation  of  his  canvass.  Here  again, 
he  laid  great  stress  upon  his  "  popular  sovereignty  "  device, 
and  upon  his  Anti-Lecompton  rebellion.  He  also  repeated 
substantially  his  two  issues  against  Mr.  Lincoln,  based  upon 
the  Springfield  speech  of  June  IGth.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  pres- 
ent and  heard  him.  The  next  day,  Douglas  made  a  speech  of 
similar  character  at  Springfield,  at  which  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not 
present.  The  latter,  however,  spoke  on  the  same  evening  at 
that  place.  The  following  arc  some  of  the  chief  points  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  speech  on  this  occasion  (July  17,  1858)  : 

INEQUALITIES  OF  THE  OONTEST-TUE  APP0RTI0N3IENT,  ETC.    , 

Fellow  Citizens  :  Another  election,  which  is  deemed  an 
important  one,  is  approaching,  and,  as  1  suppose,  the  Republi- 
can party  will,  without  much  difhculty,  elect  their  State  ticket. 
But  in  regard  to  the  Legislature,  we,  the  Republicans,  labor 
under  some  disadvantages.  In  the  first  place,  we  have  a  Leg 
islature  to  elect  upon  an  apportionment  of  the  representation 
made  several  years  ago,  when  the  proportion  of  the  population 
was  far  greater  in  the  South  (as  compared  with  the  North)  than 
it  now  is  ;  and  inasmuch  as  our  opponents  hold  almost  entire 
sway  in  the  South,  and  we  a  correspondingly  large  majority  in 
the  North,  the  fact  that  we  are  now  to  be  represented  as  we 
were  years  ago,  when  the  population  was  different,  is,  to  us,  a 
very  great  disadvantage.  We  had  in  the  year  1855,  according 
to  law,  a  census,  or  enumeration  of  the  inhabitaats,  taken  for 


LIFE    OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  169 

the  purpose  of  a  new  apportionment  of  representation.  Wo 
know  what  a  fair  apportionment  of  representation  upon  that 
census  would  give  us.  We  know  that  it  could  not,  if  fairly 
made,  f.iil  to  give  the  Republican  party  from  six  to  ten  more 
members  of  the  Legislature  than  they  can  probably  get  as  the 
law  now  stands.  It  so  happened  at  the  last  session  of  the 
Legislature,  that  our  opponents,  holding  the  control  of  both 
branches  of  the  Legislature,  steadily  refused  to  give  us  such  an 
apportionment  as  we  were  rightly  entitled  to  have  upon  the  cen- 
sus already  taken.  The  Legislature  would  pass  no  bill  upon  that 
Bubject,  except  such  as  was  at  least  as  unfair  to  us  as  the  old 
one,  and  in  which,  in  some  instances,  two  men  from  the  Dem- 
ocratic regions  were  allowed  to  go  as  far  toward  sending  a 
member  to  the  Legislature  as  three  were  in  the  Republican 
regions.  Comparison  was  made  at  the  time  as  to  representa- 
tive and  senatorial  districts,  which  completely  demonstrated 
that  such  was  the  fact.  Such  a  bill  was  passed,  and  tendered 
to  theRepublicnn  Governor  for  his  signature  ;  but,  principally 
for  the  reasons  I  have  stated,  he  withheld  his  approval,  and  the 
bill  fell  without  becoming  a  law. 

Another  disadvantage  under  which  we  labor  is,  that  there 
are  one  or  two  Democratic  Senators  who  will  be  members  of 
the  next  Legislature,  and  will  vote  for  the  election  of  Senator, 
who  are  holding  over  in  districts  in  which  we  could,  on  all  rea- 
sonable calculation,  elect  men  of  our  own,  if  we  only  had  the 
chance  of  an  election.  When  we  consider  that  there  are  but 
twenty-five  Senators  in  the  Senate,  taking  two  from  the  side 
where  they  rightfully  belong,  and  adding  them  to  the  other, 
is  to  us  a  disadvantage  not  to  be  lightly  regarded.  Still,  so  it 
is  ;  we  have  this  to  contend  with.  Perhaps  there  is  no  ground 
of  complaint  on  our  part.  In  attending  to  the  many  things^ 
involved  in  the  last  general  election  for  President,  Grovernor,"" 
Auditor,  Treasurer,  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction, 
Members  of  Congress  and  of  the  Legislature,  County  Officers, 
and  so  on,  we  allowed  these  things  to  happen  for  want  of  suf- 
ficient attention,  and  we  have  no  cause  to  complain  of  our 
adversaries,  so  far  as  this  matter  is  concerned.  But  we  have 
some  cause  to  complain  of  the  refusal  to  give  us  a  fair 
apportionment. 

There  is  still  another  disadvantage  under  which  we  labor, 
and  to  which  I  will  ask  your  attention.  It  arises  out  of  the 
relative  position  of  the  two  persons  who  stand  before  the  State 
as  candidates  for  the  Senate.  Senator  Douglas  is  of  world-wide 
renown.  All  the  anxious  politicians  of  his  party,  or  who 
have  been  of  his  party  for  years  past,  have  been  looking  upon 
him  as  certainly,  at  no  distant  day,  to  be  the  President  of  the 

15 


170  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN, 

United  States.  They  have  seen  in  his  round,  jolly,  fruitful 
face,  post  offices,  land  offices,  marshalships,  and  cabinet 
appointments,  chargeships  and  foreign  missions,  bursting  and 
sprouting  out  in  wonderful  luxuriance,  ready  to  be  laid  hold 
of  by  their  greedy  hands.  [Great  laughter.]  And  as  they 
have  been  gazing  upon  this  attractive  picture  so  long,  they 
can  not,  in  the  little  distraction  that  has  taken  place  in  the 
party,  bring  themselves  to  give  up  the  charming  hope ;  but 
with  greedier  anxiety  they  rush  about  him,  sustain  him,  and 
give  him  marches,  triumphal  entries,  and  receptions,  beyond 
what  even  in  the  days  of  his  highest  prosperity  they  could 
have  brought  about  in  his  favor.  On  the  contrary,  nobody 
has  ever  expected  me  to  be  President.  In  my  poor,  lean,  lank 
face,  nobody  has  ever  seen  that  any  cabbages  were  sprouting 
out.  [Cheering  and  laughter.]  These  are  disadvantages  all, 
that  the  Republicans  labor  under.  We  have  to  fight  this  bat- 
tle upon  principle,  and  upon  principle  alone.  I  am,  in  a  cer- 
tain sense,  made  the  standard-bearer  in  behalf  of  the  Repub- 
licans. I  was  made  so  merely  because  there  had  to  be  some 
one  so  placed — I  being  in  no  wise  preferable  to  any  other  one 
of  the  twenty-five — perhaps  a  hundred  we  have  in  the  Repub- 
lican ranks.  Then  I  say  I  wish  it  to  be  distinctly  understood 
and  borne  in  mind,  that  we  have  to  fight  this  battle  without 
many — perhaps  without  any — of  the  external  aids  which  are 
brought  to  bear  against  us.  So  I  hope  those  with  whom  I  am 
surrounded  have  principle  enough  to  nerve  themselves  for  the 
task,  and  leave  nothing  undone,  that  can  be  fairly  done,  to 
bring  about  the  right  re3ult. 

THE    DOUGLAS   PROGRAMME. 

After  Senator  Douglas  left  Washington,  as  his  movements 
were  made  known  by  the  public  prints,  he  tarried  a  considera- 
ble time  in  the  city  of  New  York  ;  and  it  was  heralded  that, 
like  another  Napoleon,  he  was  lying  by  and  framing  the  plan 
of  his  campaign.  It  was  telegraphed  to  Washington  city,  and 
published  in  the  Vniun,  that  he  was  framing  his  plan  for  the 
purpose  of  going  to  Illinois  to  pounce  upon  and  annihilate  the 
treasonable  and  disunion  speech  which  Lincoln  had  made  here 
on  the  16th  of  June.  Now,  I  do  suppose  the  Judge  really 
spent  some  time  in  New  York  maturing  the  plan  of  the  cam- 
paign, as  his  friends  heralded  for  him.  I  have  been  able,  by 
noting  his  movements  since  his  arrival  in  Illinois,  to  discover 
evidences  confirmatory  of  that  allegation.  I  think  I  have 
been  able  to  see  what  are  the  material  points  of  that  plan.  I 
will,  for  a  little  while,  ask  your  attentioh  to   some   of  them. 


LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  ^  171 

What  I  shall  point  out,  though  not  showing  the  whole  plan, 
are,  nevertheless,  the  main  points,  as  I  suppose. 

They  are  not  very  numerous.  The  first  is  Popular  Sove- 
reignty. The  second  and  third  are  attacks  upon  my  speech 
made  on  the  16th  of  June.  Out  of  these  three  points — draw- 
ing within  the  range  of  popular  sovereignty  the  question  of  the 
Lecompton  Constitution  —  he  makes  his  principal  assault. 
Upon  these  his  successive  speeches  are  substantially  one  and 
the  same.  On  this  matter  of  popular  sovereignty  I  wish  to  be 
a  little  careful.  Auxiliary  to  these  main  points,  to  be  sure, 
are  their  thunderings  of  cannon,  their  marching  and  music, 
their  fizzle-gigs  and  fire-works ;  but  I  will  not  waste  time  with 
them.     They  are  but  the  little  trappings  of  the  campaign. 

POPULAR    SOVEREIGNTY. 

Coming  to  the  substance — the  first  point — "popular  sove- 
reignty." It  is  to  be  labeled  upon  the  cars  in  which  he  travels ; 
put  upon  the  hacks  he  rides  in ;  to  be  flaunted  upon  the 
arches  he  passes  under,  and  the  banners  which  wave  over  him. 
It  is  to  be  dished  up  in  as  many  varieties  as  a  French  cook 
can  produce  soups  from  potatoes.  Now,  as  this  is  so  great  a 
staple  of  the  plan  of  the  campaign,  it  is  worth  while  to  exam- 
ine it  carefully ;  and  if  we  examine  only  a  very  little,  and  do 
not  allow  ourselves  to  be  misled,  we  shall  be  able  to  see  that 
the  whole  thing  is  the  most  arrant  Quixotism  that  was  ever 
enacted  before  a  community.  What  is  this  matter  of  popular 
sovereignty?  The  first  thing,  in  order  to  understand  it,  is  to 
get  a  good  definition  of  what  it  is,  and  after  that  to  see  how  it 
is  applied. 

I  suppose  almost  every  one  knows,  that  in  this  controversy, 
whatever  has  been  said  has  had  reference  to  the  question  of 
negro  slavery.  Vv'^e  have  not  been  in  a  controversy  about  the 
right  of  the  people  to  govern  themselves  in  the  ordinary  mat- 
ters of  domestic  concern  in  the  States  and  Territories.  Mr. 
Buchanan,  in  one  of  his  late  messages  (I  think  when  he  sent 
up  the  Lecompton  Constitution),  urged  that  the  main  point 
to  which  the  public  attention  had  been  directed,  was  not  in  re- 
gard to  the  great  variety  of  small  domestic  matters,  but  it  was 
directed  to  the  question  of  negro  slavery ;  and  he  asserts,  that 
if  the  people  had  had  a  fair  chance  to  vote  on  that  question, 
there  was  no  reasonable  ground  of  objection  in  regard  to  minor 
questions.  Now,  while  I  think  that  the  people  had  not  had 
given,  or  offered  them,  a  fair  chance  upon  that  slavery  ques- 
tion ;  still,  if  there  had  been  a  fair  submission  to  a  vote  upon 
that  main  question,  the  President's  proposition  would  have 
been  true  to  the  uttermost.     Ileuce,  when    hereafter  I  speak 


172  LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

of  popular  sovereignty,  I  wish  to  be  understood  as  applying 
•what  I  say  to  the  question  of  slavery  only,  not  to  other  minor 
domestic  matters  of  a  Territory  or  a  State. 

Does  Judge  Douglas,  when  he  says  that  several  of  the  past 
years  of  his  life  have  been  devoted  to  the  question  of  "  popular 
sovereignty,"  and  that  all  the  remainder  of  his  life  shall  be 
devoted  to  it,  does  he  mean  to  say  that  he  has  been  devoting 
his  life  to  securing  to  the  people  of  the  Territories,  the  right 
to  exclude  slavery  from  the  Territories?  If  he  means  so  to 
say,  he  means  to  deceive  ;  because  he  and  every  one  knov.'s  that 
the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  which  he  approves  and 
makes  an  especial  ground  of  attack  upon  me  for  disapproving, 
forbids  the  people  of  a  Territory  to  esclude  slavery.  This 
covers  the  whole  ground,  from  the  settlement  of  a  Territory 
till  it  reaches  the  degree  of  maturity  entitling  it  to  form  a  State 
Constitution.  So  far  as  all  that  ground  is  concerned,  the  Judge 
is  not  sustaining  popular  sovereignty,  but  absolutely  opposing 
it.  He  sustains  the  decision  which  declares  that  the  popular 
will  of  the  Territories  has  no  Constitutional  power  to  exclude 
slavery  during  their  Territorial  existence.  [Cheers.]  This 
being  so,  the  period  of  time,  from  the  first  settlement  of  a 
Territory  till  it  reaches  the  point  of  forming  a  State  Constitu- 
tion, is  not  the  thing  that  the  Judge  has  fought  for,  or  is  fight- 
ing for,  but  on  the  contrary,  he  has  fought  for,  and  is  fighting 
for,  the  thing  that  annihilates  and  crushes  out  that  same  popu- 
lar sovereignty. 

Well,  so  much  being  disposed  of,  what  is  left?  Why,  he  is 
contending  for  the  right  of  the  people,  when  they  come  to 
make  a  State  Constitution,  to  make  it  for  themselves,  and  pre- 
cisely as  best  suits  themselves.  I  say  again,  that  is  Quixotic. 
I  defy  contradiction,  when  I  declare  that  the  Judge  can  find 
no  one  to  oppose  him  on  that  proposition.  I  repeat,  there  is 
nobody  opposing  that  proposition  on  principle.  Let  me  not  be 
misunderstood.  I  know  that,  with  reference  to  the  Lecomp- 
ton  Constitution,  I  may  be  misunderstood ;  but  when  you 
understand  me  correctly,  my  proposition  will  be  true  and  accu- 
rate. Nobody  is  opposing,  or  has  opposed,  the  right  of  the 
people,  when  they  form  a  Constitution,  to  form  it  for  them- 
selves. Mr.  Buchanan  and  his  friends  have  not  done  it;  they, 
too,  as  well  as  the  Republicans  and  the  Anti-Lecompton  Demo- 
crats, have  not  done  it ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  they  together 
have  insisted  on  the  right  of  the  people  to  form  a  Constitution 
for  themselves.  The  difi'erence  between  the  Buchanan  men, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Douglas  men  and  the  Republicans 
on  the  other,  has  not  been  on  a  question  of  principle,  but  on 
a  question  oi fact. 


LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLX.  173 

The  dispute  was  upon  the  question  of  fact,  •whether  the  Le- 
comptcn  Constitution  had  been  f:iirly  formed  by  the  people, 
or  not.  3Ir.  Buchtinan  and  his  friends  have  not  contended  for 
the  contrary  principle,  any  more  than  the  Douglas  men  or  the 
Republicans.  They  have  insisted,  that  whatever  of  small 
irregularities  existed  in  getting  up  the  Lecompton  Constitution, 
Avcre  such  as  happen  in  the  settlement  of  all  new  Territories. 
The  question  was.  was  it  a  fair  emanation  of  the  people?  It 
was  a  question  of  fact,  and  not  of  principle.  As  to  the  princi- 
ple, all  were  agreed.  Judge  Douglas  voted  with  the  Republi- 
cans upon  that  matter  of  fact. 

He  and  they,  by  their  voices  and  votes,  denied  that  it  was  a 
fair  emanation  of  the  people.  The  Administration  affirmed 
that  it  was.  With  respect  to  the  evidence  bearing  upon  that 
question  of  fact,  I  readily  agree  that  Judge  Douglas  and  the 
Republicans  had  the  right  on  their  side,  and  that  the  Adminis- 
tration was  wrong.  But  I  state  again  that,  as  a  matter  of 
principle,  there  is  no  dispute  upon  the  right  of  a  people  in  a 
Territory,  merging  into  a  State,  to  form  a  Constitution  for 
themselves,  without  outside  interference  from  any  quarter. 
This  being  so,  what  is  Judge  Douglas  going  to  spend  his  life 
for?  Is  he  going  to  spend  his  life  in  maintaining  a  principle 
that  nobody  on  earth  opposes?  [Cheers.]  Does  he  expect  to 
stand  up  in  majestic  dignity,  and  go  through  his  apotheosis, 
and  become  a  god,  in  the  maintaining  of  a  principle  which 
neither  man  nor  mouse,  in  all  God's  creation,  is  opposing? 
[Great  applause.] 

THE    LECOMPTON     ISSUE. 

How  will  he  prove  that  we  have  ever  occupied  a  different 
position  in  regard  to  the  Lecompton  Constitution,  or  any 
principle  in  it  ?  He  says  he  did  not  make  his  opposition  on 
the  ground  as  to  whether  it  was  a  free  or  a  slave  Constitution, 
and  he  would  have  you  understand  that  the  Republicans  made 
their  opposition  because  it  ultimately  became  a  slave  Consti- 
tution. To  make  proof  in  favor  of  himself  on  this  point,  he 
reminds  us  that  he  opposed  Lecompton  before  the  vote  was 
taken  declaring  whether  the  State  was  to  be  free  or  slave.  But 
he  forgets  to  say-,  that  our  Republican  Senator,  Trumbull, 
made  a  speech  against  Lecompton  even  before  he  did. 

Why  did  he  oppose  it?  Partly,  as  he  declares,  because  the 
members  of  the  Convention  who  framed  it  were  not  fairly 
elected  by  the  people  ;  that  the  people  were  not  allowed  to  vote 
unless  they  had  been  registered;  and  that  the  people  of  whole 
counties,  in  some  instances,  were  not  registered.  For  these 
reasons  he  declares  the  Constitution  was  not  an  emanation,  in 


17-4  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LIXCCLN. 

any  true  sense,  from  the  people.  He  also  has  an  additional 
objection  as  to  the  mode  of' submitting  the  Constitution  back  to 
the  people.  But  bearing  on  the  question  of  whcthor  the  dele- 
gates vrere  fairly  elected,  a  speech  of  his  made  something  more 
than  twelve  months  ago,  from  this  stand,  becomes  important. 
It  was  made  a  little  while  before  the  election  of  the  delegates 
who  made  Lecompton.  In  that  speech  he  declared  there  was 
every  reason  to  hope  and  believe  the  election  would  be  fair  ; 
and  if  any  one  failed  to  vote  it  would  be  his  own  fault. 

I,  a  few  days  after,  made  a  sort  of  answer  to  that  speech. 
In  that  answer,  I  made,  substantially,  the  very  argument  with 
which  he  combated  his  Lecompton  adversaries  in  the  Senate 
last  winter.  I  pointed  to  the  fact  that  the  people  could  not 
vote  without  being  registered,  and  that  the  time  for  registering 
had  gone  by.  I  commented  on  it  as  wonderful  that  Judge 
iJouglas  could  be  ignorant  of  these  facts,  which  every  one  else 
in  the  nation  so  well  knew. 

[Mr.  Lincoln  then  proceeded  to  notice  the  attacks  made  by 
Douglas  on  the  Gth  of  June  speech  of  the  former.  In  sub- 
stance, it  is  like  his  reply  at  Chicago.  Some  of  its  more 
striking  passages  are  here  subjoined.] 

He  charges,  in  substance,  that  I  invite  a  war  of  sections  ; 
that  1  propose  that  all  the  local  institutions  of  the  different 
States  shall  become  consolidated  and  uniform.  What  is  there 
in  the  language  of  that  speech  which  expresses  such  purpose, 
or  bears  such  construction  ?  I  have  again  and  again  said  that 
I  would  not  enter  into  any  of  the  States  to  disturb  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery.  Judge  Douglas  said,  at  Bloomington,  that  I 
used  lansruaire  most  able  and  ingenious  for  concealing  what  I 
really  meant  ;  and  that,  while  I  had  protested  against  entering 
into  the  slave  States,  I  nevertheless  did  mean  to  go  on  the  banks 
of  the  Ohio  and  throw  missiles  into  Kentucky,  to  disturb  the 
people  there  in  their  domestic  institutions. 

1  said  in  that  speech,  and  I  meant  no  more,  that  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery  ought  to  he  placed  in  the  very  attitude  where 
the  framers  of  this  Government  placed  it,  and  left  it.  I  do 
not  understand  that  the  framers  of  our  Constitution  left  the 
people  of  the  free  States  in  the  attitude  of  firing  bombs  or 
shells  into  the  slave  States.  I  was  not  using  that  passage  for 
the  purpose  for  which  he  infers  I  did  use  it.  *  *  *  Now 
you  all  see,  from  that  quotation,  I  did  not  express  my  wish  on 
anything.  In  that  passage  I  indicated  no  wish  or  purpose  of 
my  own  ;  I  simp)ly  expressed  my  expectation. 


LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  175 

[Further  on,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  :  ] 

Mr.  Brooks,  of  South  Carolina,  in  one  of  his  speeches,  when 
they  were  presenting  him  canes,  silver  plate,  gold  pitchers  and 
the  like,  for  assaulting  Senator  Sumner,  distinctly  affirmed  his 
opinion  that  when  this  Constitution  was  formed,  it  was  the 
belief  of  no  man  that  slavery  would  last  to  the  present  day. 

He  said,  what  I  think,  that  the  framers  of  our  Constitution 
placed  the  institution  of  slavery  where  the  public  mind  rested 
in  the  hope  that  it  was  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction. 
But  he  went  on  to  say  that  the  men  of  the  present  age,  by 
Iheir  experience,  have  become  wiser  than  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution  ;  and  the  invention  of  the  cotton-gin  had  made 
the  perpetuity  of  slavery  a  necessity  in  this  country. 

[Recurring  to  the  Dred  Scott  case,  after  citing  Jefferson's 
views  on  judicial  decisions,  and  alluding  to  the  course  of  the 
Democracy,  Douglas  included,  in  regard  to  the  National  Bank 
decision,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  :  ] 

Now,  I  wish  to  know  what  the  Judge  can  charge  upon  me, 
with  respect  to  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court,  which  does  not 
lie  in  all  its  length,  breadth  and  proportions  at  his  own  door. 
The  plain  truth  is  simply  this  :  Judge  Douglas  is /or  Supreme 
Court  decisions  when  he  likes  and  against  them  when  he  does 
not  like  them.  He  is  for  the  Dred  Scott  decision  because  it 
tends  to  nationalize  slavery — because  it  is  part  of  the  original 
combination  for  that  object.  It  so  happened,  singularly  enough, 
that  I  never  stood  opposed  to  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court 
till  this.  On  the  contrary,  I  have  no  recollection  that  he  was 
ever  particularly  in  favor  of  one  till  this.  He  never  was  in 
favor  of  any,  nor  I  opposed  to  any,  till  the  present  one,  which 
helps  to  nationalize  slavery. 

Free  men  of  Sangamon — free  men  of  Illinois — free  men 
everywhere — ^judge  ye  between   him  and  me,  upon  this  issue. 

Near  the  close  of  July,  various  speeches  having  been  made 
by  each  at  different  points,  an  arrangement  for  one  joint  dis- 
cussion in  each  of  the  seven  Congressional  districts,  in  which 
they  had  not  already  both  spoken,  was  agreed  i;pon.  At  this 
stage  of  the  canvass,  the  people  of  the  whole  country  were 
beginning  to  take  a  lively  interest  in  this  contest,  and  the 
reports  of  the  first  debate  at  Ottawa  were  eagerly  sought  for 
and  read,  at  the  East  and  at  the  West.  The  friends  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  and  the   Republicans  in  general,  were   well   pleased 


176  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LIXCOLN. 

with  fhe  manner  in  which  he  acquitted  himself  in  this  joint 
discussion.  At  each  succeeding  encounter  of  this  sort,  the 
impression  was  strengthened,  throughout  the  country,  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  obtaining  decided  advantages  over  his  opponent. 
At  Frceport,  he  forced  Douglas  into  an  attempted  reconcilia- 
tion of  the  hitherto  unexplained  inconsistencies  between  his 
squatter  sovereignty  theory,  and  his  support  of  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  which  utterly  excludes  squatter  sovereignty  in  prac- 
tice. His  "  unfriendly  legislation  "  device,  on  that  occasion, 
cost  Douglas  the  loss  of  the  last  possibility  of  any  reconcilia- 
tion with  the  Southern  Democracy.  While  this  answer,  most 
unwillingly  given,  perhaps,  yet  announced  with  apparent  alac- 
rity, contributed  something  toward  effecting  his  immediate, 
temporary  purpose,  it  undoubtedly  destroyed  all  his  remoter 
chances  as  a  Presidential  candidate  of  a  united  Democracy. 

The  Ottawa  debate  is  memorable  for  one  of  the  most  sur- 
prising political  devices  ever  resorted  to  by  a  man  in  high 
position,  like  Douglas.  It  consisted  in  quoting  a  series  of 
ultra  resolutions  adopted  at  a  small  local  convention  long  before 
the  party  was  formed,  and  palming  them  off  as  the  platform 
adopted  by  "  the  first  mass  State  convention  ever  held  in  Illi- 
nois by  the  Black  Republican  party."  On  these  resolutions, 
to  which  he  assumed  that  Lincoln  was  committed,  Douclas 
based  a  series  of  questions,  which  the  former,  duly  exposing 
the  imposition  thus  practiced,  frankly  and  most  explicitly 
answered  at  Freeport,  the  scene  of  the  second  debate,  as 
follows  : 

OPENING  PASSAGES  OF  3IR.  LINCOLN'S  FEEEPORT  SPEECH. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : — On  Saturday  last,  Judge  Doug- 
las and  myself  first  met  in  public  discussion.  He  spoke  one 
hour,  I  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  he  replied  for  half  an  hour. 
The  order  is  now  reversed.  I  am  to  speak  an  hour,  he  an 
hour  and  a  half,  and  then  I  am  to  reply  for  half  an  hour.  I 
propose  to  devote  myself  during  the  first  hour  to  the  scope 
of  what  was  brought  within  the  range  of  his  half-hour  speech 
at  Ottawa.  Of  course  there  was  brought  within  the  scope  of 
that  half-hour's  speech  something  of  his  own  opening  speech. 
In  the  course  of  that, opening  argument  Judge  Douglas  pro- 
posed to  me  seven  distinct  interrogatories.     In  my  speech  of 


LIFE    Of    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  177 

au  hour  and  a  hall',  1  attended  to  some  other  parts  of  his 
speech,  and  incidentally,  as  I  thought,  answered  one  of  the 
interrogiitories  then.  1  then  distinctly  intimated  to  him  that 
I  would  answer  the  rest  of  his  interrogatories  on  condition  only 
that  he  should  agree  to  answer  as  many  for  me.  He  made  no 
intimation  at  the  time  of  the  proposition,  nor  did  he  in  his 
reply  allude  at  all  to  that  suggestion  of  mine.  I  do  him  no 
injustice  in  saying  that  he  occupied  at  least  half  of  his  reply 
in  dealing  with  me  as  though  I  had  refused  to  answer  his 
interrogatories.  I  now  propose  that  I  will  answer  any  of  the 
interrogatories,  upon  condition  that  he  will  answer  questions 
from  me  not  exceeding  the  same  number.  I  give  him  au 
opportunity  to  respond.  The  Judge  remains  silent.  I  now 
say  that  I  will  answer  his  interrogatories,  whether  he  answers 
mine  or  not  [applause]  :  and  that  after  I  have  done  so,  I  shall 
propound  mine  to  him.     [Applause.] 

1  have  supposed  myself,  since  the  organization  of  the  Repub- 
lican party  at  Eloomington,  in  May,  1856,  bound  as  a  party 
man  by  the  platforms  of  the  party,  then  and  since.  If  in  any 
interrogatories  which  I  shall  answer  I  go  beyond  the  scope 
of  what  is  within  these  platforms,  it  will  be  perceived  that  no 
one  is  responsible  but  myself. 

Having  said  thus  much,  I  will  take  up  the  Judge's  iuter- 
rogatories  as  I  find  them  printed  in  the  Chicago  Times,  and 
answer  them  seriatim.  In  order  that  there  may  be  no  mistake 
abovit  it,  I  have  copied  the  interrogatories  in  writing,  and  also 
my  answers  to  them.  The  first  one  of  these  interrogatories  is 
in  these  words : 

Question  1.  ''I  desire  to  know  whether  Lincoln  to-day 
stands,  as  he  did  in  1854,  in  favor  of  the  unconditional  repeal 
of  the  Fugitive  Slave  law?" 

Answer.  I  do  not  now,  nor  ever  did,  stand  in  favor  of  the 
unconditional  repeal  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  law. 

Q.  2.  "  I  desire  him  to  answer  whether  he  stands  pledged 
to-day,  as  he  did  in  1854,  against  the  admission  of  any  more 
slave  States  into  the  Union,  even  if  the  people  want  them?" 

A.  I  do  not  now,  nor  ever  did,  stand  pledged  against  the 
admission  of  any  more  slave  States  into  the  Union. 

Q.  3.  "  I  want  to  know  whether  he  stands  pledged  against 
the  admission  of  a  new  State  into  the  Union  with  such  a 
Constitution  as  the  people  of  that  State  may  see  fit  to  make  ?  " 

A.  I  do  not  stand  pledged  against  the  admission  of  a  new 
State  into  the  Union,  with  such  a  Constitution  as  the  people 
of  that  State  may  see  fit  to  make. 

Q.  4.  "  I  want  to  know  whether   he  stands   to-day  pledged 
to  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  ?  " 
16 


178  LIFE    OF    AKKAIIAM     LINCOLN. 

A.  I  do  not  stand  to-daj  pledged  to  the  abolition  of  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

Q.  5.  "  I  desire  him  to  answer  whether  lie  stands  pledged  to 
the  prohibition  of  the  slave-trade  between  the  different  States?  " 

A.  I  do  not  stand  pledged  to  the  prohibition  of  the  slave- 
trade  between  the  different  States. 

Q.  6.  "  I  desire  to  know  whether  he  stands  pledged  to  pro- 
hibit slavery  in  all  the  Territories  of  the  United  States,  North 
as  well  as  South  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line  ?  " 

A.  I  am  impliedly,  if  not  expressly,  pledged  to  a  belief  in 
the  right  and  dutij  of  Congress  to  prohibit  slavery  in  all  the 
United  States  Territories.     [Great  applause.] 

Q.  7.  "  I  desire  him  to  answer  whether  he  is  opposed  to  the 
acquisition  of  any  new  territory  unless  slavery  is  first  pro- 
hibited therein  ?  " 

A.  I  am  not  generally  opposed  to  honest  acquisition  of  ter- 
ritory ;  and,  in  any  given  ease,  I  would  or  would  not  oppose 
such  acquisition,  accordingly  as  I  might  think  such  acquisition 
would  or  would  not  agitate  the  slavery  question  among  our- 
selves. 

Now,  my  friends,  it  will  be  perceived  upon  an  examination 
of  these  questions  and  answers,  that  so  far  I  have  only 
answered  that  I  was  not  j^^cdged  to  this,  that  or  the  other. 
The  Judge  has  not  framed  his  interrogatories  to  ask  me  any 
thing  more  than  this,  and  I  have  answered  in  strict  accord- 
ance with  the  interrogatories,  and  have  answered  truly  that 
I  am  not  pledged  at  all  upon  any  of  the  points  to  which 
I  have  answered.  But  I  am  not  disposed  to  hang  upon  the 
exact  form  of  his  interrogatory.  I  am  rather  disposed  to  take 
up  at  least  some  of  these  questions,  and  state  what  I  really 
think  upon  them. 

As  to  the  first  one,  in  regard  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  law,  I 
have  never  hesitated  to  say,  and  I  do  not  now  hesitate  to 
say,  that  I  think,  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
the  people  of  the  Southern  States  are  entitled  to  a  Congres- 
sional Slave  law.  Having  said  that,  I  have  had  nothing  to  say 
in  regard  to  the  existing  Fugitive  Slave  law,  further  than 
that  I  think  it  should  have  been  framed  so  as  to  be  free  from 
some  of  the  objections  that  pertain  to  it,  without  lessening  its 
efficieney.  And  inasmuch  as  we  are  not  now  in  an  agitation 
in  regard  to  an  alteration  or  modification  of  that  law,  I  would 
not  be  the  man  to  introduce  it  as  a  new  subject  of  agitation 
upon  the  general  question  of  slavery. 

In  regard  to  the  other  question,  of  whether  I  am  pledged 
to  the  admission  of  any  inore  slave  States  into  the  Union,  I 
state  to  you  very  frankly  that  I  would  be  exceedingly  sorry 


LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  179 

ever  to  be  put  in  a  position  of  having  to  pass  upon  that  ques- 
tion. I  should  be  exceedingly  glad  to  know  that  there  would 
never  be  another  slave  State  admitted  into  the  Union;  but 
I  must  add,  that  if  slavery  shall  be  kept  out  of  the  Terri- 
tories during  the  Territorial  existence  of  any  one  given  Terri- 
tory, and  then  the  people  shall,  having  a  fair  chance  and  a 
clear  field,  when  they  come  to  adopt  the  Constitution,  do  such 
an  extraordinary  thing  as  to  adopt  a  slave  Constitution,  unin- 
tluenced  by  the  actual  presence  of  the  institution  among  them, 
I  see  no  alternative  if  we  own  the  country,  but  to  admit  them 
into  the  Union.     [Applause.] 

The  third  interrogatory  is  answered  by  the  answer  to  the 
second,  it  being,  as  I  conceive,  the  same  as  the  second. 

The  fourth  one  is  in  regard  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia.  In  relation  to  that,  I  have  my  mind 
very  distinctly  made  up.  I  should  be  exceedingly  glad  to  see 
slavery  abolished  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  I  believe  that 
Congress  possesses  the  Constitutional  power  to  abolish  it.  Yet 
as  a  member  of  Congress,  I  should  not  with  my  present  views, 
be  in  favor  of  endeavoring  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  unless  it  would  be  upon  these  conditions  :  First, 
that  the  abolition  should  be  gradual  ;  second^  that  it  should  be 
on  a  vote  of  the  majority  of  qualified  voters  in  the  District ; 
and  third,  that  compensation  should  be  made  to  unwilling 
owners.  With  these  three  conditions,  I  confess  I  would  be 
exceedingly  glad  to  see  Congress  abolish  slavery  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  and,  in  the  language  of  Henry  Clay,  "  sweep 
from  our  Capital  that  foul  blot  upon  our  nation." 

In  regard  to  the  fifth  interrogatory,  I  must  say  here,  that  as 
to  the  question  of  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  between  the 
different  States,  I  can  truly  answer,  as  I  have,  that  I  am 
pledjed  to  nothing  about  it.  It  is  a  subject  to  which  I  have 
not  given  that  mature  consideration  that  would  make  me  feel 
authorized  to  state  a  position  so  as  to  hold  myself  entirely 
bound  by  it.  In  other  words,  that  question  has  never  been 
prominently  enough  before  me  to  induce  me  to  investigate 
whether  we  really  have  the  Constitutional  power  to  do  it.  I 
could  investigate  it  if  I  had  sufficient  time  to  bring  myself  to 
a  conclusion  upon  that  subject;  but  I  have  not  done  so,  and 
I  say  so  frankly  to  you  here,  and  to  Judge  Douglas.  I  must 
say,  however,  that  if  I  should  be  of  opinion  that  Congress 
does  possess  the  Constitutional  power  to  abolish  slave- 
trading  among  the  different  States,  I  should  still  not  be  in 
favor  of  the  exercise  of  that  power  unless  upon  some  con- 
servative principle  as  I  conceive  it,  akin  to  what  I  have  said 


180  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

in  relation  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia. 

My  answer  as  to  whether  T  desire  that  slavery  should  be 
prohibited  in  all  Territories  of  the  United  States,  is  full  and 
explicit  within  itself,  and  can  not  be  made  clearer  by  any 
comments  of  mine.  So  I  suppose  in  regard  to  the  question 
whether  I  am  opposed  to  the  acquisition  of  any  more  territory 
unless  slavery  is  first  prohibited  therein,  my  answer  is  such  that 
I  could  add  nothing  by  way  of  illustration,  or  making  myself 
better  understood,  than  the  answer  which  I  have  placed  in 
writing. 

Now  in  all  this,  the  Judge  has  me,  and  he  has  me  on  the 
record.  I  suppose  he  had  flattered  himself  that  I  was  really 
entertaining  one  set  of  opinions  for  one  place  and  another  set 
for  another  place — that  I  was  afraid  to  say  at  one  place  what 
I  uttered  at  another.  "What  I  am  saying  here  I  suppose  I  say 
to  a  vast  audience  as  strongly  tending  to  Abolitionism  as  any 
audience  in  tbe  State  of  Illinois,  and  I  believe  I  am  saying 
that  which,  if  it  would  be  ofi'ensive  to  any  persons  and  render 
them  enemies  to  myself,  would  be  offensive  to  persons  in  this 
audience. 

At  Jonesboro,  in  the  lower  part  of  "  Egypt,"  where  their 
third  debate  was  held,  Douglas  reiterated  his  often-refuted 
charges  of  ultraism  against  Lincoln,  which  the  latter  just  as 
coolly  and  convincingly  disposed  of,  as  if  there  had  been  no 
unscrupulous  pertinacity  in  making  false  accusations  against 
him.  After  bringing  home  the  sin  of  reopening  agitation,  to 
the  door  of  Douglas,  be  proceeded  to  show  as  extravagant 
radicalism  in  the  recorded  professions  of  the  Democracy  as  of 
any  persons  acting  with  the  Republican  party.  He  then 
completely  riddled  the  '•  unfriendly  legislation"  theory  of 
Douglas,  exhibiting  its  utter  inconsistency  with  fidelity  to  his 
Oonstitutional  oaths,  so  long  as  he  indorsed  the  validity  of  the 
political  dogmas  of  Judge  Taney,  in  his  Dred  Scott  opinion. 

In  the  fourth  debate,  at  Charleston,  the  attempts  of  Doug- 
las to  make  capital  out  of  the  Mexican  War  question  were 
appropriately  disposed  of.  Here,  also,  Douglas  was  convicted, 
on  conclusive  testimony,  of  having  stricken  out  of  the  Toombs' 
Kansas  Bill  a  clause  requiring  the  Constitution  that  should 
be  formed  under  its  provisions,  to  be  submitted  to  the  people. 


LIFE    OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  181 

This  tad  an  important  bearing  on  one  objection  upon  which 
Douglas  based  his  Anti-Lecompton  rebellion. 

The  fifth  joint  discussion  was  held  at  Galesburg,  the  sixth 
at  Quincy,  and  the  last  at  Alton.  The  main  topics  and 
methods  of  these  debates,  as  of  the  rest,  did  not  substantially 
differ  from   those  of  the  speeches  at  Chicago  and  Springfield. 

The  Alton  debate  occurred  on  the  15th  of  October.  As 
the  day  of  the  election  (November  2d)  approached,  it  became 
more  and  more  evident  that  strong  efi"ort3  were  making,  aided 
by  the  advice  of  Senator  Crittenden  on  the  one  hand,  and  of 
Vice  President  Breckinridge  on  the  other,  to  secui-e  a  diver- 
sion of  "  Conservative"  votes,  American,  Democratic,  and 
Whig,  in  the  central  and  southern  part  of  the  State,  in  favor 
of  Douirlas.  These  endeavors  succeeded  to  such  an  extent 
that,  with  the  immense  advantages  the  Douglas  party  had  in 
their  unequal  and  utterly  unfair  apportionment  of  Legislative 
Districts,  and  in  the  lucky  proportion  of  Democratic  Senators 
holding  over,  they  secured  a  small  majority  in  each  branch  of 
the  new  Legislature.  The  Senate  had  14  Democrats  and  11 
Eepublicans — the  House  40  Democrats  and  35  Republicans. 
The  popular  voice  was  for  Lincoln,  by  more  than  four  Oiousand 
major  if y  over  Douglas. 

Admiration  of  the  manly  bearing  and  gallant  conduct  of 
Mr.  Lincoln,  throughout  this  campaign,  which  had  early 
assumed  a  national  importance,  led  to  the  spontaneous  sug- 
gestion of  his  name,  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  as  a 
candidate  for  the  Presidency.  From  the  beginning  to  the 
end  of  the  contest,  he  had  proved  him.self  an  able  statesman, 
an  effective  orator,  a  true  gentleman,  and  an  honest  man. 
While,  therefore,  Douglas  was  returned  to  the  Senate,  there 
was  a  general  presentiment,  that  a  juster  verdict  was  yet  to 
be  had,  and  that  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  cause  would  be  ulti- 
mately vindicated  before  the  people.  That  time  was  to  come, 
even  sooner,  perhaps,  than  his  friends,  in  their  momentary 
despondency,  expected.  From  that  hour  to  the  present,  the 
fame  of  Abraham  Lincoln  has  been  enlarging  and  ripening, 
and  the  love  of  his  noble  character  has  become  more  and 
more  deeply  fixed  in  the  popular  heart. 


182  LIFE   OP   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

SPEECHES   OF   1859-60. 

Mr.  Lincoln  in  Ohio. — His  Speech  at  Columbus. — Denial  of  the  Negro 
Suffrage  Charge. — Troubles  of  Douglas  with  His  "Great  Princi- 
ple."— Territories  Not  States. — Doctrines  of  the  Fathers. — His  Cin- 
cinnati Speech. — "  Shooting  Over  the  Line." — What  the  Republicans 
Mean  to  Do. — Plain  Questions  to  the  Democracy. — The  People  Above 
Courts  and  Congress.— Uniting  the  Opposition. — Eastern  Tour. — 
The  Cooper  Institute  Speech. — Mr.  Bryant's  Introduction. — What 
the  Fathers  Held. — What  Will  Satisfy  the  Southern  Democracy?— 
Counsels  to  the  Republicans. — Mr.  Lincoln  Among  the  Children. 

During  the  year  following  his  great  contest  with  Douglas, 
which  had  resulted  in  a  barren  triumph  through  the  injustice 
of  the  previous  Democratic  Legislature  in  refusing  a  fair  and 
equal  apportionment,  Mr.  Lincoln  again  gave  himself  almost 
exclusively  to  professional  labors.  During  the  autumn  cam- 
paign of  1859,  however,  when  Douglas  visited  Ohio,  and 
endeavored  to  turn  the  tide  of  battle  in  favor  of  the  Democ- 
racy in  that  State,  so  as  to  secure  the  re-election  of  Mr.  Pugh, 
and  to  gain  other  partizan  benefits,  an  earnest  invitation  was 
sent  to  Lincoln  to  assist  the  Republicans  in  their  canvass.  He 
complied,  and  delivered  two  most  effective  speeches  in  Ohio, 
one  at  Columbus,  and  the  other  at  Cincinnati. 

In  his  speech  at  the  former  place  (September  16,  1859),  he 
began  by  noticing  a  statement  which  he  read  from  the  central 
Democratic  organ,  averring  that  in  the  canvass  of  the  previous 
year  with  Douglas,  "  Mr.  Lincoln  declared  in  favor  of  negro 
suffrage."  This  charge  he  quickly  disposed  of,  showing  by 
quotations  from  his  printed  speeches  of  that  canvass,  that  he 


LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  183 

distinctly    and    repeatedly    declared    himself    o])posed   to    the 
policy  thus  attributed  to  him. 

Mr.  Lincoln  then  noticed  the  recent  Columbus  speech  of 
Mr.  Douglas,  in  which  he  "  dealt  exclusively  "  in  the  "  negro 
topics"  of  discussion.  Mr.  L.  spoke  at  some  length  on 
these  issues,  and  thoroughly  exposed  the  distinctions  between 
genuine  popular  sovereignty,  and  the  spurious  sort  which 
Douglas  and  his  friends  pass  off  for  the  reality.  He  then  went 
on  to  notice  the  great  amount  of  trouble  which  Mr-.  Douglas 
has  had  with  his  spurious  popular  sovereignty,  and  to  illustrate 
how  "  his  explanations  explanatory  of  explanations  explained 
are  interminable."  The  Harpers  Magazine  essay  was  dis- 
sected, and  left  without  any  logical  vitality  or  cohesion. 
Two  or  tiiree  brief  points  in  the  remainder  of  this  speech  are 
subjoined  : 

STATES   AND    TERRITORIES. 

There  is  another  little  difficulty  about  this  matter  of  treat- 
ing the  Territories  and  States  alike  in  all  things,  to  which  I 
ask  your  attention,  and  I  shall  leave  this  branch  of  the  case. 
If  there  is  no  difference  between  them,  why  not  make  the 
Territories  States  at  once  ?  What  is  the  reason  that  Kansas 
was  not  fit  to  come  into  the  Union  when  it  was  organized  into 
a  Territory,  in  Judge  Douglas's  view  ?  Can  any  of  you  tell 
any  reason  why  it  should  not  have  come  into  the  Union  at 
once?  They  are  fit,  as  he  thinks,  to  decide  upon  the  slavery 
question — the  largest  and  most  important  with  which  they 
could  possibly  deal — what  could  they  do  by  coming  into  the 
Union  that  they  are  not  fit  to  do,  according  to  his  view,  by 
staying  out  of  it?  Oh,  they  are  not  fit  to  sit  in  Congress  and 
decide  upon  the  rates  of  postage,  or  questions  of  ad  valorem 
or  specific  duties  on  foreign  goods,  or  live  oak  timber  con- 
tracts. [Laughter.]  They  are  not  fit  to  decide  these  vastly 
important  matters,  which  are  national  in  their  import,  but  they 
are  fit,  "  from  the  jump,"  to  decide  this  little  negro  question. 
But,  gentlemen,  the  case  is  too  plain  ;  I  occupy  too  much  time 
on  this  head,  and  I  pass  on. 

STAND    BY    THE    DOCTRINES    OF    THE    FATHERS, 

I  see  in  the  Judge's  speech  here  a  short  sentence  in  these 
words :  "  Our  lathers,  when  they  formed  this  Government 
under  which  we  live,  understood  this  question  just  as  well,  and 


184  l.:i'K    OF    ARKAIIAM    LINCOLN. 

even  better  than  v,-o  do  now."  Tiiat  is  trao.  I  stick  to  that. 
[Great  cheers  and  laughter.]  I  will  stand  by  Judge  Douglas 
in  that  to  the  bitter  end.  [Renewed  laughter.]  And  now, 
Judge  Douglas,  come  and  stand  by  nie,  and  faithfully  show 
how  they  acted,  understanding  it  better  than  we  do.  All  I 
iisk  of  you,  Judge  Douglas,  is  to  stick  to  the  proposition  that 
the  men  of  the  Revolution  understood  this  subject  better  than 
we  do  now,  and  with  that  hct'er  understanding  they  acted  letter 
titan  you  are  trying  to  act  noio.     [Applause.] 

At  Cincinnati,  on  the  17th  of  September,  Mr.  Lincoln 
addressed  an  immense  audience  on  the  same  general  political 
topics,  and  in  his  ablest  manner.  He  did  not  repeat  or 
merely  play  variations  upon  his  Columbus  speech,  but  adopted 
new  modes  of  illustrating  and  enforcing  his  views.  He  was 
listened  to  with  an  interest  rarely  excited  by  any  orator  who 
ever  spoke  in  this  city,  even  in  the  most  exciting  campaign. 
No  extracts  can  give  a  true  idea  of  its  ability  and  power  as  a 
whole.  Alluding  to  Douglas's  perversions  of  his  views,  and  to 
the  charge  of  wishing  to  disturb  slavery  in  the  States  by 
"  ghooting  over  "  the  line,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  : 

SHOOTING   OVER   THE    LINE. 

It  has  occurred  to  me  here  to-night,  that  if  I  ever  do  shoot 
over  at  the  people  on  the  other  side  of  the  line  in  a  slave 
State,  and  purpose  to  do  so,  keeping  my  skin  safe,  that  I  have 
now  about  the  best  chance  I  shall  ever  have.  [Laughter  and 
applause.]  I  should  not  wonder  if  there  are  some  Kentuck- 
ians  about  this  audience ;  we  are  close  to  Kentucky ;  and 
whether  that  be  so  or  not,  we  are  on  elevated  ground,  and  by 
speaking  distinctly,  I  should  not  wonder  if  some  of  the  Ken- 
tuckians  should  hear  me  on  the  other  side  of  the  river. 
[Laughter.]  For  that  reason  I  propose  to  address  a  portion 
(.f  what  I  have  to  say  to  the  Kentuckians. 

T  say,  then,  in  the  first  place,  to  the  Kentuckians,  that  1 
Jim  what  they  call,  as  I  understand  it,  a  '•  Black  Republican." 
[Applause  and  Laughter.]  I  think  that  slavery  is  wrong, 
morally,  socially  and  politically.  I  desire  that  it  should  be  no 
further  spread  in  these  United  States,  and  I  should  not  object 
if  it  should  gradually  terminate  in  the  whole  Union.  [Ap- 
plause.] While  I  say  this  for  myself,  I  say  to  you,  Ken- 
tuckians, that  I  understand  that  you  differ  radically  with  nic 
upon  this  proposition  ;  that  you  believe  slavery  is  a  good 
thing ;  that  slavery  is  right ;  that  it  oug'ht  to  be  extended  and 


LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  185 

perpetuated  in  this  Union.  Now,  there  being  this  broad  dif- 
ference between  us,  I  do  not  protend  in  addressing  myself  to 
you,  Kentuckians,  to  attempt  proselyting  you  at  all ;  that 
would  be  a  vain  effort.  I  do  not  enter  upon  it.  I  only  pro- 
pose to  try  to  show  you  that  you  ought  to  nominate  for  the 
next  Presidency,  at  Charleston,  my  distinguished  friend, 
Judge  Douglas.  [Applause.]  In  whatever  there  is  a  differ- 
ence between  you  and  him,  1  understand  he  is  as  sincerely  for 
you,  and  more  wisely  for  you,  than  you  are  for  yourselves. 
[Applause.]  I  will  try  to  demonstrate  that  proposition. 
Understand  now,  I  say  that  I  believe  he  is  as  sincerely  for 
you,  and  more  wisely  for  you,  than  you  are  for  yourselves. 

Mr.  Lincoln  then  went  on  to  show  that  Douglas  is  con- 
stantly endeavoring  to  "  mold  the  public  opinion  of  the 
North  to  the  ends"  desired  by  the  South  ;  that  he  only  differs 
from  the  South  in  so  far  as  is  necessary  to  retain  any  hold 
upon  his  own  section  ;  that  not  daring  to  maintain  that 
slavery  is  right,  he  professes  an  indifference  whether  it  is 
"voted  up  or  voted  down" — thus  indirectly  advancing  the 
opinion  that  it  is  not  wrong  ;  and  that  he  has  taken  a  step  in 
advance,  by  doing  what  would  not  have  been  thought  of  by 
any  man  five  years  ago,  to-wit : — denying  that  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  asserts  any  principle  intended  to  be  applica- 
ble to  black  men,  or  that  properly  includes  them.  The  tend- 
ency of  this  charge  "is  to  bring  the  public  mind  to  the 
conclusion  that  when  men  are  spoken  of,  the  negro  is  not 
meant;  that  when  negroes  are  spoken  of,  brutes  alone  are 
contemplated." 

Of  the  certainty  of  a  speedy  Kepublican  triumph  in  the 
nation,  and  of  its  results,  Mr.  Lincoln  said : 

WHAT   THE    OPPOSITION    MEAN    TO    DO. 

I  will  tell  you,  so  far  as  I  am  authorized  to  speak  for  the 
Opposition,  what  we  mean  to  do  with  you.  We  mean  to  treat 
you,  as  nearly  as  we  possibly  can,  as  Washington,  Jefferson, 
and  Madison  treated  you.  [Cheers.]  We  mean  to  leave  you 
alone,  and  in  no  way  to  interfere  with  your  institution  ;  to 
abide  by  all  and  every  compromise  of  the  Constitution,  and, 
in  a  word,  coming  back  to  the  original  proposition,  to  treat 
you,  so  far  as  degenerated  men  ( if  we  have  degenerated) 
may,  imitating  the  examples  of  those   noble  fathers — Wash- 


186  LIFE     OF   ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 

ington,  Jefferson  and  Madison.  [Applause.]  We  mean  to 
remember  that  you  are  as  good  as  we  ;  that  there  is  no  differ- 
ence between  us  other  than  the  difference  of  circumstances. 
We  mean  to  recognise  and  bear  in  mind  always  that  you  have 
as  good  hearts  in  your  bosoms  as  other  people,  or  as  we  claim 
to  have,  and  treat  you  accordingly.  We  mean  to  marry  your 
girls  when  we  have  a  chance — the  white  ones  I  mean — [laugh- 
ter] arnd  I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that  I  once  did  get  a 
chance  in  that  way.   [A  voice,  "  Good  for  you,"  and  applause.] 

PLAIN  QUESTIONS  TO  THE  DISUNION   DEMOCRACY. 

I  have  told  you  what  we  mean  to  do.     I  want  to  know,  now. 
•when  that  thing  takes  place,  what  you  mean  to  do.     I  often 
hear  it  intimated  that  you  mean  to  divide  the  Union  whenever 
a  Republican,  or  anything  like   it.  is  elected  President  of  the 
United  States.     [A  voice,   "  That  is  so,"]     "  That  is  so,"  one 
of  them  says.     I  wonder   if  he  is  a  Kentuckian  ?     [A  voice, 
"  He  is  a  Douglas  man."]     Well,  then,  I  want  to  know  what 
you  are  going  to  do   with   your   half  of  it?     [Applause  and 
laughter.]     Are  you  going  to   split  the  Ohio  down  through, 
and  push  your   half  off  a  piece  ?     Or  are  you  going  to  keep 
it   right   alongside   of   us    outrageous  fellows?     Or    are  you 
going  to  build  up  a  wall  someway  between  your  country  and 
ours,   by  which  that  movable   property  of  yours  can't  come 
over  here  any  more,  and  you  lose  it?     Do  you  think  you  can 
better  yourselves  on  that  subject,  by  leaving  us  here  under  no 
obligation  whatever  to  return  those  specimens  of  your   mov- 
able property  that  come  hither  ?     You  have  divided  the  Union 
because  we  would  not  do  right  with  you,  as  you   think,  upon 
that  subject;   when   we  cease  to  be  under  obligations  to  do 
anything  for  you,  how  much  better  off  do  you  think  you  will 
be  ?     Will  you  make  war  upon  us  and   kill   us  all  ?     Why, 
gentlemen,  I  think  you  are   as  gallant  and  as  brave  men  as 
live ;  that  you  can  fight  as  bravely  in  a  good  cause,  man  for 
man,  as  any  other  people  living  ;    that   you  have  shown  your- 
selves capable  of  this  upon  various   occasions  ;   but,  man  for 
man,  you  are  not  better   than  we  are,   and    there  are  not  so 
many   of  you   as  there   are   of  us.     [Loud    cheering.]   •  You 
■will  never  make  much  of  a  hand  at  whipping  us.     If  we  were 
fewer  in  numbers  th.tn  you,  I  think  that  you  could  whip  us; 
if  we  were  equal  it  would  likely  be  a  drawn  battle  ;  but  being 
inferior  in  numbers,  you  will  make  nothing  by  attempting  to 
master  us. 

WHAT    REPUBLICANS    MUST    DO. 

I  say  that  we  must  not  interfere  with   the  institution  of 
Slavery  in  the  States  where  it  exists,  because  the  Constitution 


LIFE   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  187 

forbids  it,  and  the  general  welfare  does  not  require  us  to  do 
so.  We  must  not  withhold  an  efficient  fugitive  slave  law, 
because  the  Constitution  requires  us,  as  I  understand  it,  not 
to  withhold  such  a  law,  but  we  must  prevent  the  outspreading 
of  the  institution,  because  neither  the  Constitution  nor  the 
general  welfire  requires  us  to  extend  it.  We  must  prevent 
the  revival  of  the  African  slave-trade  and  the  enacting  by 
Congress  of  a  Territorial  slave-code.  We  must  prevent  each 
of  these  things  being  done  by  either  Congresses  or  Courts. 
The  people  of  these  United  States  are  the  rightful 

MASTERS    OF  BOTH    CONGRESSES    AND    CoURTS  [applause],    not 

to  overthrow  the  Constitution,  but  to  overthrow  the  men  who 
per»fert  that  Constitution.     [Applause.] 

After  expressing  an  earnest  desire  "  that  all  the  elements 
of  the  Opposition  should  unite  in  the  next  Presidential 
election  and  in  all  future  time,"  on  a  right  and  just  basis ; 
and  after  saying,  "  There  are  plenty  of  men  in  the  slave 
States  that  are  altogether  good  enough  for  me  to  be  either 
President  or  Vice  Pi'esident,  provided  they  will  profess 
sympathy  with  our  purpose  in  the  election,  and  will  place 
themselves  upon  such  ground  that  our  men,  upon  principle,  can 
vote  for  them,"  Mr.  Lincoln  brought  his  remarks  to  a  close. 

In  the  spring  of  1860,  Mr.  Lincoln  yielded  to  the  calls  which 
came  to  him  from  the  East  for  his  presence  and  aid  in  the 
exciting  political  canvasses  there  going  on.  He  spoke  at 
various  places  in  Connecticut,  New  Hampshire,  and  Rhode 
Island,  and  also  in  New  York  city,  to  very  large  audiences, 
and  was  everywhere  warmly  welcomed.  Perhaps  one  of  the 
greatest  speeches  of  his  life,  was  that  delivered  by  him  at  the 
Cooper  Institute,  in  New  York,  on  the  27th  of  February,  1860. 
A  crowded  audience  was  present,  which  received  Mr.  Lincoln 
with  enthusiastic  demonstrations.  William  Cullen  Bryant 
presided,  and  introduced  the  speaker  in  terms  of  high  compli- 
ment to  the  West,  and  to  the  "  eminent  citizen  "  of  that  sec- 
tion, whose  political  labors  in  1856  and  '58  were  appropriately 
eulogized. 

THE  COOPER  INSTITUTE  SPEECH. 

Mr.  Lincoln  then  proceeded  to  address  his  auditors  in  an 
extended  and  closely-reasoned  argument,  proving  in  the  most 
convincing   manner,  that  the   Republican   party  stands  where 


188  LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

"  the  Fathers  "  stood  on  the  slavery  question,  and  eloquently 
enforcing  the  sentiment  expressed  by  Mr.  Douglas  in  his 
Columbus  speech,  of  the  previous  autumn,  namely:  "Our 
fathers,  when  they  framed  the  Grovernment  under  which  we  live, 
understood  this  question  just  as  well,  and  even  better,  than  we 
do  now."  The  argument  and  its  illustrations  were  masterly; 
the  logic  unanswerable.  A  few  paragraphs  of  his  concluding 
remarks  are  all    that  can  be  given    here  : 

WHAT  WILL  SATISFY  THE    SOUTHEKX    DEMOCRACY? 

A  few  words  now  to  Republicans.  It  is  exceedingly  desira- 
ble that  all  parts  of  this  great  Confederacy  shall  be  at  peace, 
and  in  harmony  one  with  another.  Let  us  Republicans  do 
our  part  to  have  it  so.  Even  though  much  provoked,  let  us  do 
nothing  through  passion  and  ill  temper.  Even  though  the 
Southern  people  will  not  so  much  as  listen  to  us,  let  us  calmly 
consider  their  demands,  and  yield  to  them,  if,  in  our  deliberate 
view  of  our  duty,  we  possibly  can.  Judging  by  all  they  say 
and  do,  and  by  the  subject  and  nature  of  their  controversy 
with  us,  let  us  determine,  if  we  can,  what  will  satisfy  them. 

Will  they  be  satisfied  if  the  Territories  be  unconditionally 
surrendered  to  them  ?  We  know  they  will  not.  In  all  their 
present  complaints  against  us,  the  Territories  are  scarcely  men- 
tioned. Invasions  and  insurrections  are  the  rage  now.  Will 
it  satisfy  them  if,  in  the  future,  we  have  nothing  to  do  with 
invasions  and  insurrections?  We  know  it  will  not.  We.  so 
know,  because  we  know  we  ncA-er  had  anything  to  do  with 
invasions  and  insurrections;  and  yet  this  total  abstaining  does 
not  exempt  us  from  the  charge  and  the  denunciation. 

The  question  recurs.  What  will  satisfy  them  ?  Simply  this  : 
We  must  not  only  let  them  alone,  but  we  must,  somehow,  con- 
vince them  that  we  do  let  them  alone.  This,  we  know  by 
experience,  is  no  easy  task.  We  have  been  so  trying  to  con- 
vince them,  from  the  very  beginning  of  our  organization,  but 
with  no  success.  In  all  our  platforms  and  speeches,  we  have 
constantly  protested  our  purpose  to  let  them  alone;  but  this 
has  had  no  tendency  to  convince  them.  Alike  unavailing  to 
convince  them  is  the  fact,  that  they  have  never  detected  a  man 
of  us  in  any  attempt  to  disturb  them. 

These  natural  and  apparently  adequate  means  all  failing, 
what  will  convince  them  ?  This,  and  this  only  :  cease  to  call 
slavery  ivrong,  and  join  them  in  calling  it  riylit.  All  this  must 
be  done  thoroughly — done  in  acts  as  well  as  in  words.  *    *    * 

If  our  sense  of  duty  forbids  this,  then  let  us  stand  bv  our 
duty,  fearlessly  and  efiectively.     Let  us  be  diverted  bv  none  of 


LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  189 

those  sophistical  contrivances  wherewith  we  are  so  industri- 
ously plied  and  belabored — contrivances  such  as  groping  for 
some  middle  ground  between  the  right  and  the  wrong,  vain  as 
the  search  for  a  man  who  should  be  neither  a  living  man  nor 
a  dead  man — such  as  a  policy  of  "  don't  care  "  on  a  question 
about  wliich  all  true  men  do  care — such  as  Union  appeals, 
beseeching  true  Union  men  to  yield  to  Disunionists.  reversing 
the  Divine  rule,  and  calling,  not  the  sinners,  but  the  righteous 
to  repentance — such  as  invocations  of  Washington,  imploring 
men  to  unsay  what  Washington  said,  and  undo  what  Washing- 
ton did.  Neither  let  us  be  slandered  from  our  duty  by  false 
accusations  against  us,  nor  frightened  from  it  by  menaces  of 
destruction  to  the  Government,  nor  of  dungeons  to  ourselves. 
Let  us  have  faith  that  right  makes  might;  and  in  that  faith, 
let  us,  to  the  end,  dare  to  do  our  duty,  as  we  understand  it. 

This  is  the  last  of  the  great  speeches  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  of 
which  there  is  any  complete  report.  It  forms  a  brilliant  close 
to  this  period  of  his  life,  and  a  fitting  prelude  to  that  on  which 
he  is  believed  to  be  about  to  enter. 

It  was  during  this  visit  to  New  York  that  the  following  inci- 
dent occurred,  as  related  by  a  teacher  in  the  Five  Points  House 
of  Industry,  in  that  city : 

Our  Sunday-school  in  the  Five  Points  was  assembled,  one 
Sabbath  morning,  a  few  months  since,  when  I  noticed  a  tall, 
and  remarkable-looking  man  enter  the  room  and  take  a  seat 
among  us.  He  listened  with  fixed  attention  to  our  exercises, 
and  his  countenance  manifested  such  genuine  interest,  that  I 
approached  him  and  suggested  that  he  might  be  willing  to  say 
something  to  the  children.  He  accepted  the  invitation  with 
evident  pleasure,  and  coming  forward  began  a  simple  address, 
which  at  once  fascinated  every  little  hearer,  and  hushed  the 
room  into  silence.  His  language  was  strikingly  beautiful,  and 
his  tones  musical  with  intensest  feeling.  The  little  faces 
around  would  droop  into  sad  conviction  as  he  uttered  sentences 
of  warning,  and  would  brighten  into  sunshine  as  he  spoke 
cheerful  words  of  promise.  Once  or  twice  he  attempted  to 
close  his  remarks,  but  the  imperative  shout  of  "  Go  on  !  "  "  Oh, 
do  go  on  !  "  would  compel  him  to  resume.  As  I  looked  upon 
the  gaunt  and  sinewy  frame  of  the  stranger,  and  marked  his 
powerful  head  and  determined  features,  now  touched  into  soft- 
ness by  the  impressions  of  the  moment,  I  felt  an  irrepressible 
curiosity  to  learn  something  more  about  him,  and  when  he  was 
quietly  leaving  the  room,  I  begged  to  know  his  name.  He 
courteously  replied,  "  It  is  Abra'm  Lincoln,  from  Illinois  !  " 


190  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

MR.  Lincoln's  nomination  for  the  presidency. — 

CONCLUSION. 

The  Republican  National  Convention  at  Chicago. — The  Charleston  Ex- 
plosion.— "Constitutional  Union"  Nominations. — Distinguished  Can- 
didates among  the  Republicans. — The  Platform. — The  Ballotings. — 
"Mr.  Lincoln  Nominated.  —  Unparalleled  Enthusiasm. — The  Ticket 
Completed  with  the  name  of  Senator  Hamlin. — Its  Reception  by  the 
Country. — Mr.  Lincoln's  Letter  of  Acceptance. 

The  doings  of  the  Kepublican  National  Convention,  -which 
met  at  Chicago  on  the  16th  of  May,  1860,  are  too  fresh  in 
public  recollection  to  be  recapitulated  or  dwelt  upon  here. 
At  the  date  of  its  assembling,  the  great  quadrennial  conven- 
tion of  the  Democratic  party  had  been  held  at  Charleston,  and, 
after  nearly  two  weeks'  session,  had  adjourned  without  any 
agreement  upon  either  platform  or  candidates.  Douglas,  with 
his  Freeport  record,  which  had  become  necessary  in  order 
to  accomplish  his  temporary  purpose,  had  proved  an  irrecon- 
cilably disturbing  element  in  that  convention.  The  nomina- 
tion of  Douglas  by  a  united  Democracy  had  been  demonstrated 
to  be  impossible,  and  the  only  alternative  of  his  withdrawal 
or  an  incurable  disruption  was  presented.  Subsequently,  a 
"Constitutional  Union"  Convention  had  assembled  at  Balti- 
more and  nominated  a  Presidential  ticket,  with  no  other 
definitely  avowed  object  than  that  professed  in  common  by  all 
citizens,  everywhere,  of  supporting  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union.  All  eyes  were  now  turned  toward  Chicago,  as  the 
point  at  which  the  problem  of  the  next  Presidency  was  to  be 
definitely  solved. 

Before  the  Republican  National  Convention  met,  the  names 


LIFE  OV  ABRAIIA.M    LINCOLN.  191 

of  many  distinguished  statesmen  had  been  proposed  for  the 
first  ph\ce  on  the  Presidential  ticket,  and  their  merits  and 
availability  had  been  extensively  discussed.  In  this  prelimi- 
nary canvassing  there  had  been  no  bitterness  or  unseemly 
personalities.  There  was  a  general  indication  of  harmony  in 
ultimate  action,  and  of  unbroken  union  upon  whatever  ticket 
should  be  selected. 

The  first  day  of  the  convention  was  spent  in  organizing,  and 
on  the  second  day  the  committee,  selected  for  that  purpose, 
reported  a  platform  of  principles  which  was  unanimously 
adopted,  and  has  been  strongly  approved  by  the  people. 

On  the  morning  of  the  18th,  amid  the  most  intense  though 
subdued  excitement  of  the  twelve  thousand  people  inside  of 
the  "Wigwam"  in  which  the  convention  was  held,  and  amid 
the  anxious  solicitude  and  suspense  of  the  still  greater  num- 
bers outside  who  could  not  gain  admission,  it  was  voted  to 
proceed  at  once  to  ballot  for  a  candidate  for  President  of  the 
United  States.  Seven  names  were  formally  presented  in  the 
following  order : 

William  II.  Seward,  of  New  York ;  Abraham  Lincoln, 
of  Illinois ;  William  L.  Dayton,  of  New  Jersey ;  Simon 
Cameron,  of  Pennsylvania;  Salmon  P.  Chase,  of  Ohio; 
Edward  Bates,  of  Missouri ;  and  John  McLean,  of  Ohio. 
~  Loud  and  long-continued  applause  greeted  the  first  two  of 
these  names,  in  particular,  between  which  it  was  soon  appa- 
rent that  the  chief  contest  was  to  be. 

On  the  first  ballot  Mr.  Seward  received  173  votes,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln 102,  Mr.  Cameron  50,  Mr.  Chase  49,  Mr.  Bates  48,  Mr. 
Dayton  14,  Mr.  McLean  12,  and  there  were  16  votes  scattered 
among  candidates  not  put  in  nomination.  For  a  choice,  233 
votes  were  required. 

On  the  second  ballot  (Mr.  Cameron's  name  having  been 
withdrawn)  the  vote  for  the  several  candidates  was  as  follows : 
Mr.  Seward  184,  Mr.  Lincoln  181,  Mr.  Chase  42,  Mr.  Bates 
35,  Mr.  Dayton  10,  Mr.  McLean  8,  scattering  4. 

The  third  ballot  was  immediately  taken,  and,  when  the  call 
of  the  roll  was  ended,  the  footings  were  as  follows  :  For  Mr. 
Lincoln  231,  Mr.  Seward  180,  Mr.  Chase  24,  Mr.  Bates  22, 


192  LIFE   OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

all  others  7.  Immediately,  before  the  result  was  announced, 
four  Ohio  delegates  changed  their  votes  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  giving 
him  a  majority. 

The  scene  which  followed  —  the  wild  manifestations  of 
approval  and  delight,  within  and  without  the  hall,  prolonged 
uninterruptedly  for  twenty  minutes,  and  renewed  again  and 
again  for  a  half-hour  longer — no  words  can  describe.  Never 
before  was  there  a  popular  assembly  of  any  sort,  probably,  so 
stirred  with  a  contagious  and  all-pervading  enthusiasm.  The, 
nomination  was  made  unanimous,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Everts,  of 
New  York,  who  had  presented  the  name  of  Mr.  Seward,  and 
speedily,  on  the  wings  of  lightning,  the  news  of  the  great 
event  was  spread  to  all  parts  of  the  land.  Subsequently,  with 
like  heartiness  and  unanimity,  the  ticket  was  completed  by 
the  nomination,  on  the  second  ballot,  of  Senator  Hannibal 
Hamlin,  of  Maine,  for  Vice-President. 

These  remarkable  and  unparalleled  demonstrations  at  Chi- 
cago were  but  a  representation  of  the  common  sentiments  of 
the  masses  of  the  Republican  party,  and  of  thousands  among 
the  people,  not  before  included  in  its  ranks,  in  the  country  at 
large.  From  that  day  to  the  present,  the  v,'isdom  of  the  nom- 
ination of  Abraham  Lincoln  for  the  highest  place  in  the 
American  Government  has  been  more  and  more  confirmed. 
As  a  man  of  the  people,  in  cordial  sympathy  with  the  masses, 
he  will  secure  an  immen.se  vote  from  the  sincere  friends  of  free 
labor,  regardless  of  party  distinctions.  Asa  man  of  sterling 
integrity  and  incorruptible  honesty,  he  is  felt  to  be  a  suitable 
agent  for  rescuing  the  federal  government  from  its  present 
degradations.  As  a  man  of  undoubted  ability,  and  of  sound 
principles  after  the  earliest  and  best  standards  in  our  political 
history,  his  election  -will  bring  quiet  to  the  country,  and  insure 
an  administration  that  shall  be  eminently  creditable  to  our 
republican  polity. 

The  brief  and  admirable  letter  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  acceptance 
of  the  Presidential  nomination,  marking  the  transition  to  a 
new  period  of  his  life  but  now  beginning,  forms  the  appropriate 
conclusion  to  the  present  work  : 


LIFE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  193 

Springfield,  III.,  May  23,  I860, 
[Ion.  Geo.  Ashmun, 

President  of  the  Repuhlican  National  Convention: 
Sir: — I  accept  the  nomination  tendered  me  by  the  conven- 
tion  over  -which  you  presided,  and  of  which  I   am   formally 
apprised  in  the  letter  of  yourself  and  others,  acting  as  a  com- 
mittee of  the  convention  for  that  purpose. 

The  declaration  of  principles  and  sentiments,  which  accom- 
panies your  letter,  meets  my  approval ;  and  it  shall  be  my 
care  not  to  violate,  nor  disregard  it,  in  any  part. 

Imploring  the  assistance  of  Divine  Providence,  and  with 
due  regard  to  the  views  and  feelings  of  all  who  were  repre- 
sented in  the  convention  ;  to  the  rights  of  all  the  States,  and 
Territories,  and  the  people  of  the  nation  ;  to  the  inviolability 
of  the  Constitution,  and  to  the  perpetual  union,  harmony  and 
prosperity  of  all,  I  am  most  happy  to  co-operate  for  the  prac- 
tical success  of  the  principles  declared  by  the  convention. 
Tour  obliged  friend  and  fellow-citizen, 

Abraham  Lincoln. 


SKETCH 


OF    THB 


LIFE  OF  HANNIBAL  HAMLIN 


The  ancestors  of  Mr.  Hamlin  were  among  the  earlier 
settlers  of  Massachusetts.  His  grandfather,  Eleazer  Hamlin, 
resided  in  that  State.  Immediately  before  the  Revolution, 
when  companies  of  minute  men  were  raised,  he  commanded 
one,  and  had  five  sons  enrolled  under  him.  Of  these,  one 
served  during  the  war,  and  was  a  member  of  the  Society  of 
the  Cincinnati.  Cyrus,  another  son  of  Eleazer  Hamlin,  stud- 
ied medicine,  and  settled  as  a  physician  at  Livermore,  Oxford 
county,  Maine,  in  the  valley  of  the  Androscoggin.  He  was 
here  married  to  Anna  Livermore,  daughter  of  Deacon  Elijah 
Livermore,  one  of  the  principal  proprietors  of  the  town  which 
bears  his  name. 

Dr.  Hamlin  pursued  his  profession  at  this  place  for  several 
years,  having  a  very  extensive  practice.  While  residing  at 
Livermore,  he  built  the  house  in  which  the  three  Washburnes, 
now  Representatives  in  Congress,  were  born.  On  the  division 
of  the  old  county  of  Cumberland,  and  the  formation  of 
Oxford  county,  he  was  appointed  Clerk  of  the  Courts  for  the 
latter,  which  office  he  long  retained.  He  was  afterward 
Sheriff  of  the  county  for  a  number  of  years,  and  until  his 
resignation  of  the  office.  On  receiving  the  first  of  these 
appointments,  he  of  course  removed  to  the  county  seat,  Paris. 
Dr.  Hamlin  was  a  member  of  the  Baptist  church  for  many 
years  previous  to  his  death,  which  occurred  in  1828,  when 
he  was  fifty-eight  years  of  age.  He  was  universally  respected 
as  a  Christian  man.  Hia  widow,  a  member  of  the  same 
194 


Mi!Metxm,StrahnJtieiC'° 


6^C<^ 


CUOC{Ji<.U^ 


LIFE   OF    HANNIBAL    HAMLIN.  195 

church,  and  eminent  for  her  piety,  survived  him  until  1851, 
being  seventy  years  old  at  the  time  of  her  decease. 

Hannibal  Hamlin  was  born  of  these  parents,  in  Paris, 
Maine,  on  the  27th  day  of  August,  1809  —  in  the  same  year 
with  Abraham  Lincoln,  of  whom  he  is  six  months  the  junior. 
There  were  seven  children  in  the  family,  six  of  them  being 
sons,  of  whom  Hannibal  was  the  youngest.  His  oldest 
brother,  Elijah,  has  long  been  one  of  the  most  prominent 
men  of  the  State.  It  was  the  design  of  Dr.  Hamlin  to  give 
his  son  Hannibal  a  collegiate  education,  and  he  was  early 
sent  to  the  private  schools  in  his  own  town,  and  to  the  Acad- 
emy in  Hebron,  not  far  distant.  At  about  fifteen  or  sixteen 
years  of  age,  he  was  nearly  fitted  for  college,  when  the  failure 
of  the  health  of  his  brother  Cyrus,  who  was  to  have  remained 
at  home  on  the  farm,  led  to  the  recall  of  Hannibal  from 
school,  to  engage  in  farm -work,  while  C3'rus  went  to  the 
study  of  medicine. 

During  this  time  of  his  laboring  on  the  farm,  Hannibal 
completed  the  survey  of  a  township  of  forest  land,  purchased 
by  his  father  and  others.  This  tract  was  situated  on  the 
Dead  river,  about  twelve  miles  distant  from  any  inhabitants. 
Young  Hamlin  entered  the  woods  about  the  first  of  April,  on 
snow  shoes,  he  and  his  party  carrying  their  provisions  and 
supplies  on  their  backs.  They  remained  in  the  woods  nearly 
six  weeks,  often  sleeping  on  the  ground,  in  the  gorges  and  on 
the  mountains,  with  the  snow  seven  feet  in  depth  beneath 
them.  He  continued  his  agricultural  labors  until  he  was 
about  eighteen  years  old,  when,  under  the  direction  of  his 
father,  he  began  the  study  of  the  law  with  his  brother  Elijah, 
who  had  settled  in  the  Eastern  part  of  Maine.  He  studied 
six  or  eight  months,  when,  his  father  dying,  he  again  returned 
home,  and  labored  on  the  farm  for  the  next  two  years. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1829  or  '30,  he  purchased  one-half 
of  the  Jeffersonian,  a  paper  printed  in  Paris.  His  associate 
in  the  proprietorship  was  Horatio  King,  the  present  First 
Assistant  Postmaster-General.  While  connected  with  this 
paper,  and  after  leaving  it,  he  contributed  both  prose  and 
poetic  articles  to  its  columns.     He  sold  out  his  interest  in  the 


iy(>  LIFE   OP    HANNIBAL    UAMLIN. 

paper  to  Mr.  King,  in  tte  fall  of  the  same  year,  but  continued 
to  work  at  the  case  and  at  the  press  until  the  January  fol- 
lowing. 

Acting  under  the  advice  of  his  mother,  he  then  returned  to 
the  study  of  the  law,  entering  the  office  of  Joseph  G.  Cole, 
who  was  afterward  a  Judge  of  the  District  Court  of  Maine. 
During  the  next  three  years  his  legal  studies  were  prosecuted 
with  Mr.  Cole,  and  also  with  the  firm  of  Messrs.  Fessenden, 
Deblois  and  Fessenden,  of  Portland,  the  junior  partner  of  this 
firm  being  his  present  colleague  in  the  United  States  Senate. 

After  completing  this  the  required  term  of  study,  Mr.  Ham- 
lin was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Paris,  in  January,  1833,  and  at 
once  entered  on  the  practice  of  his  profession,  having  been 
engaged  in  a  case,  argued  it  before  a  jury,  and  gained  a  verdict 
on  the  day  of  his  admission.  The  client  in  this  case  was  so 
well  pleased  with  the  young  advocate,  that  he  named  a  son 
after  him — now  a  distinguished  mechanic  in  Massachusetts. 

In  April,  1833,  Mr.  Hamlin  removed  to  Hampden,  a  town 
of  about  4,000  inhabitants,  with  a  village  of  1,500,  situated 
six  miles  below  the  city  of  Bangor,  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
Penobscot  river,  where  he  has  ever  since  resided.  Here  he  at 
once  entered  uppn  a  large  practice,  always  arguing  his  own 
cases,  and  being  often  employed  to  argue  those  of  other  coun- 
selors. In  addition  to  his  forensic  efi'orts,  he  frequently 
addressed  public  audiences  at  lyceums  and  in  political  and 
other  meetings.  His  extensive  legal  practice  was  continued 
until  the  time  of  his  second  election  to  the  Senate,  in  1851, 
when  he  wholly  abandoned  his  professional  pursuits. 

In  1833,  Mr.  Hamlin  was  married  to  Miss  Sarah  Jane 
Emery,  daughter  of  the  Hon.  Stephen  Emery,  the  Judge  of 
Probate  for  the  county  of  Oxford,  and  afterward  Attorney 
General  for  the  State  and  Judge  of  the  District.  He  still  sur- 
vives. Mrs.  Hamlin  died  in  April,  1855,  leaving  three  children, 
two  sons  and  one  daughter.  One  of  these  sons  was  present 
at  the  recent  State  Convention  of  the  Eepublicans  of  Maine, 
at  Augusta,  and  made  a  speech  which  was  received  with  great 
applause.     In  September,  1856,  Mr.  Hamlin  was  married  to 


LIFE    Of    IIANNIHAL    HAMLIN.  197 

Miss  Ellen  V.  Emery,  his  present  accomplished  wife,  by  whom 
he  has  one  son.     She  is  a  half-sister  of  his  former  wife. 

Mr.  Ilamiin  was  annually  elected  by  his  fellow-townsmen 
of  Hampden,  a  Representative  in  the  State  Legislature,  during 
the  five  years  from  1836  to  1840,  inclusive.  He  became  at 
once  a  prominent  member  of  the  House,  and  one  of  the  leaders 
of  his  party,  being  one  of  the  foremost  participants  in  all  the 
principal  debates.  He  was  one  of  the  most  active  business 
men  in  that  body.  The  second  year  of  his  service,  1837,  he 
was  elected  Speaker  of  the  House,  and  was  again  elected  to 
that  office  in  1839  and  '40.  At  the  close  of  each  session, 
during  which  he  occupied  the  Chair,  he  received  a  cordial  and 
unanimous  vote  of  thanks  for  the  ability  and  impartiality  with 
which  he  had  discharged  the  duties  of  that  position. 

In  1840,  Mr.  Hamlin  was  the  candidate  of  the  Democratio 
party  (of  which  he  had  always  been  an  active  and  efficient 
member)  for  Representative  in  Congress  from  the  Penobscot 
district.  This  was  in  the  midst  of  the  Harrison  tornado,  which 
overturned  the  Democratic  ascendency  in  Maine,  for  the  time, 
as  in  so  many  other  States.  He  was  defeated  in  a  poll  of  about 
fifteen  thousand  votes,  by  less  than  two  hundred.  It  is  notice- 
able that  in  this  campaign  be  canvassed  the  district  with  his 
opponent,  the  Hon.  Elisha  H.  Allen,  this  being,  it  is  believed, 
the  first  instance  of  the  kind  in  New  England.  In  1843  (the 
election  having  been  postponed  one  yeai*,  in  consequence  of 
the  required  new  apportionment  under  the  census),  Mr.  Ham- 
lin was  again  a  candidate,  running  against  Mr.  Allen,  his 
former  competitor,  and  was  elected  by  about  one  thousand 
majority. 

Mr.  Hamlin  first  took  a  seat  in  the  National  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives at  the  opening  of  the  28th  Congress,  in  December, 
1843.  He  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  Committee  on 
Elections.  His  first  speech  (reported  in  the  Appendix  to  the 
CongrcssiioiiQ,l  Globe,  13th  vol.,  p.  28)  was  in  opposition  to  the 
21st  rule.  He  also  spoke,  at  the  first  session,  on  a  bill  fixing 
the  time  for  the  meeting  of  Presidential  electors,  and 
delivered  a  political  speech  on  party  issues  (April  15,  1844), 


198  LIP"    OF    IIAN.NIBAL    HAMLIN'. 

the  Presidential    contest  between  Cl;iy  and  Polk  being  then 
pending. 

The  second  session  of  the  23th  Congress  was  nieinorable  for 
the  consnmmation  of  the  annexation  of  Texas.  Mr.  Hamlin 
was  not  averse  to  new  accessions  of  territory,  but  favored 
that  policy,  on  such  terms  as  he  deemed  suitable.  The  joint 
resolution  annexing  Texas  did  not  meet  his  approval,  and  he 
voted  against  it.  On  that  subject  he  made  a  sound  and  truly 
eloquent  speech.  lie  expressed  liis  profound  regret  that  this 
''great  and  important  national  question  had  been  dragged 
down,  down,  down,  from  its  own  proper  sphere  to  a  wretched, 
contemptible  one  for  extending  and  perpetuating  slavery.'' 
The  attempt  "  had  been  made,  by  certain  gentlemen,  to  degrade 
it  from  its  nationality  into  a  question  for  promoting  one  nar- 
row, sectional  interest — the  stren<rthening  of  the  slave  power." 
He  then  entered  into  an  examination  of  the  correspondence  of 
the  Tyler  Administration  on  the  subject,  showing  what  pro- 
slavery  motives  h.ad  entered  into  its  policy  on  this  question, 
and  how  prominently  the  "  alleged  design  of  the  British 
Government  to  abolish  slavery  in  Texas,"  had  been  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  annexation  i^-sue.  After  quoting  from  an  elab- 
orate argument  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  then  Secretary  of  State,  in 
defense  of  slavery,  and  urging  the  annexation  of  Texas,  as  a 
means  for  its  maintenance,  Mr.  Hamlin  said  : 

What!  was  it.  true  that  the  slave  institution  in  this  coun- 
try was  the  great  upholder  of  the  power  of  this  Republic,  and 
the  great  means  of  spreading  civilization  over  the  world? 
Was  it  on  such  a  correspondence  and  on  such  doctrine  that 
gentlemen  of  that  ucuse.were  solicited  to  vote  in  the  affirma- 
tive and  to  consummate  this  Union  between  Texas  and  the 
United  States?  When  this  correspondence  was  given  to  the 
world  and  they  should  return  home  and  tell  their  constituents 
that  they  had  voted  for  annexation  on  such  principles  and 
with  such  an  aim,  would  they  not  be  pronounced  recreant  to 
their  duty  and  traitors  to  their  country?  Mr.  H.  denied 
this  reasoning  and  the  conclusions.  If  Government  were 
thus  bound  to  extend  its  domain  for  such  a  purpose,  it  made 
what  tvds  cntirdij  a  domestic  affair  one  of  a  national  character. 
The  General  Government  hacl  no  ri2;ht  to  interfere  in  it.  If 
it  could   extend  for   a   supposed   beneficial   purpose,  it  could 


LIFE    OP   HANNIBAL    HAMLIN.  199 

restrict^  if  it  believed  it  would  produce  the  same  beneficial 
effect.  It  was  an  attempt  to  make  a  national  question  of  what 
related  solely  to  the  States  ;  and  those  who  assumed  to  give  it 
that  character  would  be  swift  indeed  to  prevent  the  action  of 
Congress  in  another  and  different  direction.  The  question  of 
annexation  was  I'ully  and  clearly  national — not  one  where 
Government  should  act  for  a  cause  over  which  it  had  no  right 
to  interfere. 

After  further  pursuing  this  branch  of  his  subject,  Mr. 
Hamlin  expressed  his  friendliness  to  annexation  on  fiiir  and 
equal  terms,  but  his  opposition  to  the  present  measure.  He 
then  alluded  to  reproaches  which  had  been  uttered  against 
his  section  of  the  country,  concluding  as  follows  : 

If  the  North  had  acted  wickedly,  he  offered  for  her  no 
apology — that  wickedness  was  not  the  crime  of  her  people^  it 
belonged  to  her  politicians  alone.  Mr.  H.  had  neither 
reproaches  to  cast,  nor  defense  to  offer  for  the  folly  or  wicked- 
ness, which,  at  times,  had  been  committed  by  political  men. 
Sure  he  was,  that  the  hardy  sons  of  the  ice-bound  region  of 
New  England  had  poured  out  their  blood  without  stint  to 
protect  the  shores  of  the  South,  or  to  avenge  her  wrongs. 
Their  bones  were  even  now  bleaching  beneath  the  sun  on 
many  a  Southern  hill ;  and  the  monuments  of  their  brave 
devotion,  might  still  be  traced  wherever  their  country's  flag 
had  floated  on  the  battle-field  or  the  breeze,  upon  the  lakes, 
the  ocean,  and  the  land. 

"New  England's  dead  1  New  England's  dead! 
On  every  field  they  lie, 
On  every  field  of  strife  made  red, 

With  bloody  victory! 
Their  bones  are  on  our  Northern  hills, 

And  on  the  Southern  plain  ; 
By  brook  and  river,  mount  and  rills, 
And  in  the  sounding  main." 

I  glory  in  New  England  and  New  England's  institu- 
tions. There  she  stands,  with  her  free  schools  and  her 
free  labor,  her  fearless  enterprise,  her  indomitable  energy  ! 
With  her  rocky  hills,  her  torrent  streams,  her  green  valleys, 
her  heavenward  pointed  spires  ;  there  she  stands,  a  moral 
monument,  around  which  the  gratitude  of  her  country  binds 
the  wreath  of  fome,  while  protected  Freedom  shall  repose  for- 
ever at  its  base. 

I  meet  not  my  Southern   brethren  with  the  brand  of  dis- 


200  LIFE   OF    HANNIBAL   HAMLIN, 

cord,  but  with  the  olive  branch  of  peace.  I  meet  them  in  the 
spirit  of  harmouy.  I  desire  to  meet  them  on  even  ground,  on 
ground  alike  respectful  to  the  North  and  to  the  South  ;  and  I 
invoke  them  to  perform  this  great  national  act  in  such  a  man- 
ner that  Southern  and  Northern  hands  may  unite  in  raising 
the  stars  and  stripes  of  our  beloved  Union,  and  that  Southern 
and  Northern  hearts  may  rejoice  together  to  behold  them  float- 
ing forever  over  the  rich  and  fertile  Texan  plains.  I  ask — 
will  not  gentlemen  meet  us  here?  Will  they  not  rescue  this 
measure  alike  from  danger  and  reproach,  and  put  it  in  a  shape 
to  gratify  us  all?  I  entreat  them  to  look  at  the  question  in 
all  the  lights  of  cool  reflection,  before  they  finally  reject  a 
compromise  which,  while  it  secures  them  an  inestimable  bene- 
fit, does  equal  justice  to  all  sections,  and  all  interests  of  the 
Union. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  now  to  say  that  Mr.  Hamlin's  appeal 
on  this  subject  was  of  no  immediate  practical  avail,  and  that 
he  voted  against  the  Annexation  resolution.  At  the  same  ses- 
sion, Mr.  Hamlin  delivered  a  practical  speech  (App.  Globe, 
vol.  14,  p.  248)  on  a  reduction  and  graduation  of  the  price  of 
the  public  lands. 

Mr.  Hamlin  was  again  elected  to  the  House  of  Represent- 
atives in  1844.  He  was  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Elections,  and  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Naval  Af- 
fairs, during  the  29th  Congress.  He  made  several  speeches 
the  first  session,  on  the  public  land  question,  on  giving 
notice  to  the  British  Government  to  terminate  the  joint  occu- 
pancy of  Oregon  (Jan.  12,  1846),  on  the  mode  of  raising 
troops  for  the  Mexican  War,  and  other  subjects.  At  the 
second  session,  184G-7,  he  spoke  on  the  mode  of  increasing 
the  army,  and  on  establishing  a  Territorial  Government  for 
Oregon.  In  this  latter  speech,  Mr.  Hamlin  (dissenting  from 
the  policy  of  the  Democratic  party  in  general)  more  distinctly 
explained  his  position  in  regard  to  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
after  the  refusal  of  the  South  to  agree  to  any  division  of  the 
territory  between  slavery  and  free  labor.  He  here  announced, 
in  the  most  explicit  manner,  his  opposition  to  the  extension 
of  slavery,  as  already  foreshadowed  in  his  first  speech  on 
Texan  annexation,  when  that  measure  was  still  pending. 
During  this   session,  he   offered   the   Wilmot  Proviso,  as   an 


LIFE    OF    HANNIBAL    HAMLIN.  201 

amendment  to  the  then  somewhat  famous  "  Three  Million 
Bill." 

On  returning  home,  at  the  close  of  this  Congress,  there 
having  been  a  failure  to  elect  a  Representative  for  Hampden, 
in  the  State  Legislature  (a  majority  being  required  to  elect), 
Mr.  Hamlin  was  nominated  by  the  Democrats  for  that  posi- 
sition,  was  elected,  and  served  in  the  Legislature  of  1847. 

Governor  Fairfield,  one  of  the  Senators  of  the  United  States 
from  Maine,  having  died  in  the  spring  of  1848,  Mr.  Hamlin 
was  elected,  in  May  of  that  year,  to  fill  the  vacancy  thus 
created.  He  served  for  the  four  years  of  this  unexpired 
term,  and  was  re-elected  on  the  25th  of  July,  1851,  for  the 
full  term.  As  a  candidate,  at  this  time,  he  encountered  the 
bitter  hostility  of  the  specially  pro-slavery  portion  of  the 
Democracy,  who  refused  to  the  last  to  support  him,  although  he 
was  the  regular  nominee.  The  exact  nature  of  this  oppo- 
sition, and  the  method  of  his  election,  after  a  protracted  strug- 
gle, will  appear  by  the  following  extract  from  the  columns  of 
the  Augusta  Af/e,  at  that  time  the  "  official  paper  "  of  the 
Democratic  party  : 

Hon.  Hannibal  Hamlin,  the  regular  Democratic  nominee 
for  U.  S.  Senator,  was  elected  in  both  Houses  of  the  Legisla- 
ture on  Thursday  last. 

We  congratulate  the  Democracy  of  the  State  upon  the 
result.  We  rejoice  that  the  question  has  been  finally  disposed 
of  in  a  manner  conformable  to  the  wishes  and  expectations  of 
a  great  majority  of  the  Democratic  party  of  Maine. 

The  failure  to  elect  Mr.  Hamlin  at  an  earlier  period  in  the 
session,  was  occasioned  by  the  refusal  of  a  small  portion  of 
the  Democratic  members  to  support  him,  the  pretext  of  their 
opposition  being  the  opinions  he  entertained  upon  the  subject 
of  the  extension  of  slavery,  and  the  determination  which  he 
cherished  of  obeying  the  resolutions  of  instruction  passed  by 
the  last  Legislature  in  relation  to  that  subject. 

After  repeated  attempts  to  effect  an  election  had  been  made 
without  success,  several  members  of  the  Free  Soil  party, 
believing  that  there  was  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Demo- 
crats opposed  to  Mr.  Hamlin  to  cut  him  down,  in  consequence 
of  his  opposition  to  the  introduction  of  slavery  into  territory 
now  free,  although  not  concurring  with  him  in  political  opia- 
ions,  voluntarily  gave  him  their  votes,  amounting  to  ten  in  the 

18 


202  LIFE    OF    HANNIBAL    HAMLIN. 

House  of  Representatives,  and  three  in  the  Senate,  which 
secured  his  election.  It  was  certainly  an  act  of  magnanimity, 
which  can  not  fail  to  be  appreciated,  and  particularly  as  it  was 
a  free  will  offering  (from  incn  who  are  in  an  opposing  political 
organization)  to  Mr.  Hamlin  for  his  firm  adherence  fo  princi- 
ples held  in  common  by  them  with  the  great  mass  of  the  peo- 
ple of  the  North,  irrespective  of  party  distinctions. 

In  his  opposition  to  the  extension  of  slavery,  a  vital  issue 
of  the  Republican  organization,  Mr.  Hamlin  has  been  uni- 
form, decided  and  earnest  during  all  his  public  career,  and 
regardless  of  party  ties  or  inducements  leading  in  any  other 
direction. 

In  the  Senate,  Mr.  Hamlin  entered  at  once,  after  his  first 
election,  upon  a  service  as  active  and  influential  as  that  which 
distinguished  his  four  years  in  the  House.  One  of  his  earliest 
speeches,  as  a  Senator,  was  on  the  bill  providing  a  Territorial 
Government  for  Oregon,  in  1848,  during  the  first  session  of 
the  oOth  Congress.  The  whole  subject  of  the  then  well- 
known  Clayton  Compromise  came  under  consideration.  He 
closed  his  remarks  in  these  memorable  words  : 

There  are  other  objections  to  the  bill  to  which  I  would 
gladly  allude,  but  I  have  already  detained  the  Senate  longer 
than  I  designed  or  anticipated.  Looking  to  the  lights  of 
other  days — the  patriots  of  other  times — the  eloquent  warn- 
ings which  we  have  had  from  our  Washington,  our  Madison, 
our  Jefferson,  our  Mason,  ay,  and  from  our  own  Pinckney,  too, 
and  all  that  long  list  of  patriotic  men  of  the  South  who  have 
adorned  this  Union,  who  have  pointed  out  the  evils  that  would 
come  upon  us  by  perpetuating  and  extending  this  institution, 
I  owe  it  to  the  constituents  whom  I  represent,  to  our  posterity, 
to  all  the  toiling  millions  who  arc  seeking  an  asylum  in  our 
land,  to  embrace  this  opportunity  of  opposing  with  unshaken 
firmness  any  attempt  to  introduce  or  permit  this  institution  to 
flow  into  Territory  now  free.  Let  these  vast  and  fertile 
reo-ions  be  preserved  for  the  cultivation  of  free  labor  and  free 
men,  so  well  calculated  to  advance  the  arts  of  civilization. 

The  first  speech,  properly  so-called,  made  in  the  Senate  on 
the  admission  of  California,  was  delivered  by  Mr.  Hamlin  on 
the  5th  of  March,  1850. 

Late  in  the  same  session,  Mr.  Hamlin  made  a  speech,  cred- 


LIFE    OF    HANNIBAL    HAMLIN.  203 

itable  alike  to  his  intellect  and  to  his  humanity,  in  favor  of 
abolishing  the  practice  of  flogging  in  the  navy. 

As  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Commerce,  to  which 
position  he  was  elected  in  December,  1849,  and  which  he  con- 
tinued to  hold  until  he  resigned  it  in  1856,  Mr.  Hamlin  gave 
laborious  and  faithful  attention  to  the  subjects  which  came 
before  him.  Among  his  more  important  speeches,  during  the 
31st  Congress,  were  one,  at  the  first  session,  on  the  Ocean 
Mail  Service,  and  another,  the  second  session,  on  regulating 
the  liabilities  of  ship-owners.  He  took  a  prominent  and 
active  part,  in  connection  with  Senator  John  Davis,  in  pre- 
paring and  urging  the  bill,  first  introduced  in  the  32nd  Con- 
gress, providing  for  the  greater  security  of  lives  on  steam- 
boats. During  the  first  session  of  the  same  Congress,  he 
made  two  elaborate  speeches  on  the  American  fisheries,  giving 
a  full  history  of  the  negotiations  on  that  subject,  and  furnish- 
ing a  fund  of  information  in  regard  to  it,  nowhere  else  to  be 
found  in  the  same  space.  He  also  made  two  or  three  shorter 
speeches,  in  the  same  Congress,  defending  the  River  and  Har- 
bor bill  from  the  assaults  made  upon  it,  and  favoring  the 
Internal  Improvement  policy.  He  offered  and  actively  sup- 
ported an  amendment  of  the  Pension  laws  so  as  to  secure  pen- 
sions to  widows  of  Revolutionary  soldiers  who  married  after 
1800.  He  introduced  a  resolution,  at  the  second  session  of 
the  32nd  Congress  (in  1853)  authorizing  the  codification  of 
the  Revenue  laws,  which,  after  having  been  amended,  on  his 
own  motion,  so  as  to  appropriate  $10,000  for  this  purpose, 
was  adopted.  Under  Mr.  Guthrie's  supervision,  this  resolu- 
tion was  carried  into  efiect,  the  Revenue  laws  codified,  and 
reported  to  Congress. 

At  the  first  session  of  the  33rd  Congress,  in  1854,  Mr. 
Hamlin  proposed  an  amendment  to  the  bill  for  the  greater 
security  of  the  lives  of  passengers  on  steamboats,  and  made  a 
short  speech,  which  was  immediately  followed  by  the  passage 
of  that  most  important  bill,  in  the  Senate. 

Down  to  1856,  Mr.  Hamlin  had  acted  regularly  with  the 
Democratic  party,  uniformly  voting,  nevertheless,  against  all 
projects  for  extending  slavery.     Having  occupied,  for  several 


204  LIFE    OF   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

years,  tlie  position  of  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Com- 
merce, to  which  he  was  appointed  by  the  Democratic  majority 
in  the  Senate,  he  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to  resign  that  place,  on 
resolving,  after  the  Cincinnati  Convention  of  1856,  no  longer 
to  act  with  a  party  which  he  deemed  to  have  deserted  the  chief 
landmarks  of  Democracy.  In  doing  so  he  took  occasion  to 
define  his  political  position,  in  a  clear  and  apposite  speech 
herewith  given  : 

ME.  HAMLIN'S  SPEECH  ON  DEMOCKATIC  TESTS. 
[In  the  United  States  Senate,  June  12,  1856.) 

The  Senate  having  come  to  order,  Mr.  Hamlin  said  : 

Mr.  President  : — I  rise  for  a  purpose  purely  personal,  such 
as  I  have  never  before  risen  for  in  the  Senate.  I  desire  to 
explain  some  matters  personal  to  myself  and  to  my  own  future 
course  in  public  life.  ,. 

Several  Senators.     Go  on. 

Mr.  Hamlin.  I  ask  the  Senate  to  excuse  me  from  further 
service  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Commerce.  I  do  so, 
because  I  feel  that  my  relations  hereafter  will  be  of  such  a 
character  as  to  render  it  proper  that  I  should  no  longer  hold 
that  position.  I  owe  this  act  to  the  dominant  majority  in  the 
Senate.  When  I  cease  to  harmonize  with  the  majority,  or 
tests  are  applied  by  that  party  with  which  I  have  acted  to 
•which  I  can  not  submit,  I  feel  that  I  ought  no  longer  to  hold 
that  respectable  position.  I  propose  to  state  briefly  the  reasons 
which  have  brought  me  to  that  conclusion. 

During  nine  years  of  service  in  the  Senate  I  have  preferred 
rather  to  be  a  working  than  a  talking  member,  and  so  I  have 
been  almost  a  silent  one.  On  the  subjects  which  have  so 
much  agitated  the  country.  Senators  know  that  I  have  rarely 
uttered  a  word.  I  love  my  country  more  than  I  love  my 
party.  I  love  my  country  above  my  love  for  any  interest  that 
can  too  deeply  agitate  or  disturb  its  harmony.  I  saw,  in  all 
the  exciting  scenes  and  debates  through  which  we  have  passed, 
no  particular  good  that  would  result  from  my  active  inter- 
mingling in  them.  My  heart  has  often  been  full,  and  the 
impulses  of  that  heart  have  often  been  felt  upon  my  lips,  but  I 
have  repressed  them  there. 

Sir,  I  hold  that  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  was 
a  gross  moral  and  political  wrong,  unequaled  in  the  annals 
of  the  legislation  of  this  country,  and  hardly  equaled  in  the 
annals  of  any  other  free  country.     Still,  sir,  with  a   desire  to 


LIFE   OP   HANNIBAL    HAMLIN.  205 

promote  harmony  and  concord  and  brotherly  feeling,  I  was  a 
quiet  man  under  all  the  exciting  debates  which  led  to  that 
fatal  result.  I  believed  it  wrong  then  ;  I  can  see  that  wrong 
lying  broadcast  all  around  us  now.  As  a  wrong  I  opposed 
that  measure — not  indeed  by  my  voice,  but  with  consistent 
and  steady  and  uniform  votes.  I  so  resisted  it  in  obedience 
to  the  dictates  of  my  own  judgment.  I  did  it  also  cheer- 
fully, in  compliance  with  the  instructions  of  the  Legislature  of 
Maine,  which  were  passed  by  a  vote  almost  unanimous.  In 
the  House  of  Representatives  of  Maine,  consisting  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty-one  members,  only  six,  I  think,  dissented ; 
and  in  the  Senate,  consisting  of  thirty-one  members,  only  one 
member  non-concurred. 

But  the  Missouri  restriction  was  abrogated.  The  portentous 
evils  that  were  predicted  have  followed,  and  are  yet  following, 
along  in  its  train.  It  was  done,  sir,  in  violation  of  the  pledges 
of  that  party  with  which  I  have  always  acted,  and  with  which 
I  have  always  voted.  It  was  done  in  violation  of  solemn  pledges 
of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  made  in  his  inaugural 
address.  Still,  sir,  I  was  disposed  to  suffer  the  wrong,  until  I 
should  see  that  no  evil  results  were  flowing  from  it.  We  were 
told  by  almost  every  Senator  who  addressed  us  upon  that  occa- 
sion, that  no  evil  results  would  follow  ;  that  no  practical  dif- 
ference in  the  settlement  of  the  country,  and  the  character 
of  the  future  State,  would  take  place,  whether  the  act  were 
done  or  not.  I  have  waited  calmly  and  patiently  to  see  the 
fulfillment  of  that  prediction  ;  and  I  am  grieved,  sir,  to  say 
now,  that  they  have  at  least  been  mistaken  in  their  predictions 
and  promises.     They  all  have  signally  failed. 

That  Senators  might  have  voted  for  that  measure  under  the 
belief  then  expressed,  and  the  predictions  to  which  I  have 
alluded,  I  can  well  understand ;  but  how  Senators  can  now 
defend  that  measure  amid  all  its  evils,  which  are  overwhelm- 
ing the  land,  if  not  threatening  it  with  a  confiagration,  is 
what  I  do  not  comprehend.  The  whole  of  the  disturbed  state 
of  the  country  has  its  rise  in,  and  is  attributable  to,  that  act 
alone — nothing  else.  It  lies  at  the  foundation  of  all  our  mis- 
fortunes and  commotions.  There  would  have  been  no  incur- 
sions by  Missouri  borderers  into  Kansas  either  to  establish 
slavery  or  control  elections.  There  would  have  been  no 
necessity  either  for  others  to  have  gone  there  partially  to  aid 
in  preserving  the  country  in  its  then  condition.  All  would 
have  been  peace  there.  Had  it  not  been  done,  that  repose 
and  quiet  which  pervaded  the  public  mind  then,  would  hold  it  in 
tranquillity  to-day.  Instead  of  startling  events  we  should  have 
quiet  and  peace  within  our  borders,  and  that  fraternal  feeling 


206  LIFE   OP  HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

Tchich  ought  to  animate  the  citizens  of  every  part  of  the  Union 
■toward  those  of  all  other  sections. 

Sir,  the  events  that  are  taking  place  around  us  are  indeed 
startling.  They  challenge  the  public  mind,  and  appeal  to  the 
public  judgment ;  they  thrill  the  public  nerve  as  electricity 
imparts  a  tremulous  motion  to  the  telegraphic  wire.  It  is  a 
period  when  all  good  men  should  unite  in  applying  the  proper 
remedy  to  secure  peace  and  harmony  to  the  country.  Is  this 
to  be  done  by  any  of  us,  by  remaining  associated  with  those 
who  have  been  instrumental  in  producing  these  results,  and 
who  now  justify  them?  I  do  not  see  my  duty  lying  in  that 
direction. 

I  have,  while  temporarily  acquiescing,  stated  here  and  at 
home,  everywhere,  uniformly,  that  when  the  tests  of  those 
measures  were  applied  to  me  as  one  of  party  fidelity,  I  would 
sunder  them  as  flax  is  sundered  at  the  touch  of  fire.  I  do  it 
now. 

The  occasion  involves  a  question  of  moral  duty ;  and  self- 
respect  allows  me  no  other  line  of  duty  but  to  follow  the 
dictates  of  my  own  judgment  and  the  impulses  of  my  own 
heart.  A  just  man  may  cheerfully  submit  to  many  enforced 
humiliations  ;  but  a  self-degraded  man  has  ceased  to  be  worthy 
to  be  deemed  a  man  at  all. 

Sir,  what  has  the  recent  Democratic  Convention  at  Cincin- 
nati done?  It  has  indorsed  the  measure  I  have  condemned, 
and  has  sanctioned  its  destructive  and  ruinous  effects.  It  has 
done  more — vastly  more.  That  principle  or  policy  of  Terri- 
torial sovereignty  which  once  had,  and  which  I  suppose  now 
has,  its  advocates  within  these  walls,  is  stricken  down  ;  and 
there  is  an  absolute  denial  of  it  in  the  resolution  of  the  con- 
vention— if  I  can  draw  right  conclusions — a  denial  equally  to 
Congress,  and  even  to  the  people  of  the  Territories,  of  the 
right  to  settle  the  question  of  slavery  therein.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  convention  has  actually  incorporated  into  the  plat- 
form of  the  Democratic  party  that  doctrine  which,  only  a  few 
years  ago,  met  nothing  but  ridicule  and  contempt,  here  and 
elsewhere,  namely  :  that  the  flag  of  the  Federal  Union,  under 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  carries  slavery  wherever 
it  floats.  If  this  baleful  principle  be  true,  then  that  national 
ode,  which  inspires  us  always  as  on  a  battle-field,  should  be 
re-written  by  Drake,  and  should  read  thus : 

"Forever  flont  that  standard  sheet ; 

Where  breathes  the  foe  but  falls  before  us, 
With  Slavery's  soil  beneath  our  feet, 
And  Slaveey's  banner  streaming  o'er  us?" 


LirE    OP    HANNIBAL    HAMLIN.  207 

Now,  sir,  -what  is  the  precise  condition  in  ■wliicli  this  matter 
is  left  by  the  Cincinnati  Convention?  I  do  not  design  to 
trespass  many  moments  on  the  Senate  ;  but  allow  me  to  read 
and  offer  a  very  few  comments  upon  some  portions  of  the 
Democratic  platform.  The  first  resolution  that  treats  upon  the 
subject  is  in  these  words — I  read  just  so  much  of  it  as  is 
applicable  to  my  present  remarks: 

"  That  Congress  has  no  power  under  the  Constitution  to 
interfere  with  or  control  the  domestic  institutions  of  the 
several  States;  and  that  all  such  States  are  the  sole  and 
proper  judges  of  everything  appertaining  to  their  own  aifairs 
not  prohibited  by  the  Constitution." 

I  take  it  that  this  language,  thus  far,  is  language  that  meets 
a  willing  and  ready  response  from  every  Senator  here — cer- 
tainly it  does  from  me.  But  in  the  following  resolution  I  find 
these  words : 

'■'■Resolved,  That  the  foregoing  proposition  covers,  and  was 
intended  to  embrace,  the  whole  subject  of  slavery  agitation  in 
Congress." 

The  first  resolution  which  I  read  was  adopted  years  ago  in 
Democratic  conventions.  The  second  resolution  which  I  read 
was  adopted  in  subsequent  years,  when  a  different  state  of 
things  had  arisen,  and  it  became  necessary  to  apply  an  abstract 
proposition  relating  to  the  States  to  the  Territories.  Hence 
the  adoption  of  the  language  contained  in  the  second  resolu- 
tion which  I  have  read. 

Now,  sir,  I  deny  the  position  thus  assumed  by  the  Cincin- 
nati Convention.  In  the  language  of  the  Senator  from 
Kentucky  (  Mr.  Crittenden),  so  ably  and  so  appropriately 
used,  on  Tuesday  last,  I  hold  that  the  entire  and  unqualified 
sovereignty  of  the  Territories  is  in  Congress.  That  is  my 
judgment;  but  this  resolution  brings  the  Territories  precisely 
within  the  same  limitations  which  are  applied  to  the  States  in 
the  resolution  which  I  first  read.  The  two  taken  together 
deny  to  Congress  any  power  of  legislation  in  the   Territories. 

Follow  on,  and  let  us  see  what  remains.  Adopted  as  a 
part  of  the  present  platform,  and  as  necessary  to  a  new  state 
of  thing's,  and  to  meet  an  emergency  now  existing,  the  con- 
vention says  : 

'•  The  American  Democracy  recognize  and  adopt  the  princi- 
ples contained  in  tlie  organic  laws  establishing  the  Territorie3 
of  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  as  embodying  the  only  sound  and 
safe  solution  of  the  slavery  question,  upon  which  the  great 
national  idea  of  the  people  of  this  whole  country  can  repose, 
in  its  determined  conservatism  of  the  Union — non-interfe- 
rence by  Congress  with  slavery  in  States  and  Territories." 


208  LIFE   OF    HANNIBAL   HAMLIN. 

Then  follows  the  last  resolution  : 

"  Resolved^  That  we  recognize  the  right  of  the  people  of  all 
the  Territories,  including  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  acting 
through  the  fairly-expressed  will  of  the  majority  of  actual 
residents,  and  whenever  the  number  of  their  inhabitants 
justifies  it,  to  form  a  Constitution,  with  or  without  domestic 
slavery,  and  be  admitted  into  the  Union  upon  terms  of  perfect 
equality  with  the  other  States." 

Take  all  these  resolutions  together,  and  the  deduction 
which  we  must  necessarily  draw  from  them  is  a  denial  to 
Congress  of  any  power  whatever  to  legislate  upon  the  subject 
of  slavery.  The  last  resolution  denies  to  the  people  of  the 
Territory  any  power  over  that  subject,  save  when  they  shall 
have  a  sufficient  number  to  form  a  Constitution  and  become  a 
State,  and  also  denies  that  Congress  has  any  power  over  the 
subject ;  and  so  the  resolutions  hold  that  this  power  is  at  least 
in  abeyance  while  the  Territory  is  in  a  Territorial  condition. 
That  is  the  only  conclusion  which  you  can  draw  from  these 
resolutions.  Alas  !  for  short-lived  Territorial  sovereignty.  It 
came  to  its  death  in  the  house  of  its  friends  ;  it  was  buried  by 
the  same  hands  which  had  given  it  baptism  ! 

But,  sir,  I  did  not  rise  for  the  purpose  of  discussing  these 
resolutions,  but  only  to  read  them,  and  state  the  action  which 
I  propose  to  take  in  view  of  them.  I  may — I  probably 
shall — take  some  subsequent  occasion,  when  I  shall  endeavor 
to  present  to  the  Senate  and  the  country  a  fair  account  of 
what  is  the  true  issue  presented  to  the  people  for  their  con- 
sideration and  decision. 

My  object  now  is  to  show  only  that  the  Cincinnati  Conven- 
tion has  indorsed  and  approved  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  from  which  so  many  evils  have  already  flowed — 
from  which,  I  fear,  more  and  worse  evils  must  yet  be  antici- 
pated. It  would,  of  course,  be  expected  that  the  Presidential 
nominee  of  that  Convention  would  accept,  cordially  and 
cheerfully,  the  platform  prepared  for  him  by  his  party  friends. 
No  person  can  object  to  that.  There  is  no  equivocation  on 
his  part  about  the  matter.  I  beg  leave  to  read  a  short  extract 
from  a  speech  of  that  gentleman,  made  at  his  own  home, 
within  the  last  few  days.  In  reply  to  the  Keystone  Club, 
which  paid  him  a  visit  there,  Mr.  Buchanan  said  : 

"  Gentlemen,  two  weeks  since  I  should  have  made  you  a 
longer  speech,  but  now  I  have  been  placed  on  a  platform  of 
which  I  most  heartily  approve,  and  that  can  speak  for  me. 
Being  the  representative  of  the  great  Democratic  party,  and 
not   simply   James    Buchanan,    I    must   square  my  conduct 


LIFE   OP    HANNIBAL    HAMLIN.  209 

according   to  the   platform   of  the  party,  and  insert  no  new 
plank,  nor  take  one  from  it." 

These  events  leave  to  me  only  one  unpleasant  duty,  which 
is  to  declare  here  that  I  can  maintain  political  associations 
with  no  party  that  insists  upon  such  doctrines;  that  I  can 
support  no  man  for  President  who  avows  and  recognizes 
them  ;  and  that  the  little  of  that  power  with  which  God  has 
endowed  me  shall  be  employed  to  battle  manfully,  firmly,  and 
consistently  for  his  defeat,  demanded  as  it  is  by  the  highest 
interests  of  the  country  which  owns  all  my  allegiance. 

Mr.  Hamlin  was  subsequently  nominated,  in  June,  1856, 
as  the  Republican  candidate  for  Governor  of  Maine.  The 
Democratic  party  had  carried  the  State  the  year  previous,  and 
were  then  in  power.  He  commenced  the  canvass  in  July,  and 
traversed  the  State,  making  nearly  a  hundred  speeches  in  the 
diiferent  counties.  He  was  elected  in  September  by  an  abso- 
lute majority  of  about  eighteen  thousand  over  his  two  compet- 
itors, and  twenty-three  thousand  over  the  Democratic  candidate, 
more  than  double  the  majority  ever  given  to  any  other  candi- 
date in  that  State.  The  effect  of  this  brilliant  triumph  was 
electric,  in  the  great  Fremont  canvass,  and  so  remarkable  a 
revolution  surprised  even  the  most  sanguine  of  Senator  Ham- 
lin's friends  abroad. 

On  the  7th  of  January,  1857,  he  resigned  his  seat  in  the 
Senate,  and  was  inaugurated  the  same  day  as  Governor  of 
Maine. 

On  the  16th  of  January,  a  little  more  than  a  week  after  his 
inauguration.  Gov.  Hamlin  was,  for  the  third  time,  chosen  a 
Senator  of  the  United  States,  in  which  office  he  had  served 
nearly  ten  years.  The  full  term,  for  which  he  was  then 
elected,  commenced  on  the  4th  of  March,  1857.  On  the  20th 
of  February  he  resigned  the  office  of  Governor,  and  soon  after 
returned  to  Washington,  resuming  his  seat  in  the  Senate. 

During  the  first  session  of  the  35th  Congress,  March 
9th  and  10th,  1858,  Mr.  Hamlin  made  an  extended  and  able 
speech  on  the  Lecompton  Constitution  and  the  Kansas  ques- 
tion. He  also  replied  at  the  same  session,  pointedly  and  elo- 
quently, to  the  "  mud-sill  "  speech  of  Gov.  Hammond,  of  South 
Carolina,  repelling  his  assaults  upon  the  laborers  of  the  free 


210  LIFE   Off    HANNIBAL    HAMLIN. 

States.  At  the  opening  of  this  Congress,  he  also  took  occa- 
sion to  expose,  in  a  most  effective  manner,  the  unfairness  and 
gross  sectional  partiality  of  the  Democratic  majority  in  the 
Senate  in  the  formation  of  the  committees.  He  made  another 
able  speech,  at  this  session,  in  defense  of  American  rights  in 
regard  to  the  fisheries — a  question  of  much  local  importance 
to  his  own  State  and  to  other  portions  of  New  England.  In 
the  active  discharge  of  his  duties  as  a  Senator,  Mr.  Hamlin, 
since  his  last  election,  has  continued  without  interruption  until 
the  present  time. 

Mv.  Hamlin's  nomination  for  the  Vice  Presidency,  at  Chi- 
cago, on  the  18th  of  May  last,  was  an  event  as  unexpected  to 
him  as  any  that  could  have  happened.  As  a  warm  friend  of 
Gov.  Seward,  and  expecting  his  nomination  for  the  Presidency, 
he  had,  of  course,  no  thought  that  his  own  name  could  come 
before  the  Piepublican  National  Convention  for  any  place  on 
its  ticket.  The  spontaneousness,  unanimity  and  cordiality 
with  which  this  nomination  was  made,  and  its  universal 
acceptableness,  as  since  demonstrated,  are  conclusive  evidences 
of  the  exalted  character  and  eminently  honorable  national 
standing  of  Senator  Hamlin.  He  is  also  emphatically  one 
who  has  a  strong  hold  upon  the  popular  heart.  His  sympa- 
thies are  with  the  people,  and  he  shares  theirs  in  return.  No 
other  name  could  have  been  found  among  all  those  of  our 
public  men,  which,  as  associated  with  that  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, could  bring  more  strength  to  the  ticket  in  the  present 
canvass. 

Little  remains  to  be  added  to  this  condensed  sketch,  save 
some  more  particular  notice  of  Mr.  Hamlin's  public  character 
and  personal  traits.  It  is  but  stating  the  strict  truth  to 
say  that,  during  his  entire  Congressional  service,  Mr.  Ham- 
lin has  displayed,  in  an  eminent  degree,  the  qualities  of  a 
prompt,  intelligent  and  efficient  business  man.  His  executive 
abilities  are  of  a  rare  and  high  order.  He  has  made  it  a  first 
object  to  meet  the  business  demands  made  upon  him  by  his 
own  constituents  and  State.  Every  letter,  of  this  sort,  is 
promptly  attended  to  and  answered.  What  a  draft  this  has 
constantly  made  upon  his  time  and  efforts,  every  man  who 


LIPK    OP   HANNIBAL   HAMLIN.  211 

knows  anything  of  the  requirements  made  of  a  Congressman, 
will  be  able  to  appreciate.  All  parties  in  Maine  have 
demanded  these  services  from  Mr.  Ilamlin,  and  have  accorded 
him  the  praise  of  fidelity  and  efficiency  in  devotion  to  their 
interests.  The  heads  of  the  Treasury  and  of  the  Customs 
Department,  including  such  men  as  ex-Secretary  Guthrie, 
Assistant  and  Acting  Secretary  Hodge,  and  Gov.  Anderson, 
Commissioner  of  Customs,  have  declared  Gov.  Hamlin  to  bo 
the  best  business  man  in  the  Senate.  During  his  entire  ser- 
vice as  a  Senator,  he  has  been  a  member  of  the  very  laborious 
and  important  Committee  on  Commerce,  and  was  its  Chairman 
for  seven  years.  In  this  latter  capacity,  he  had  supervision  of 
all  the  great  questions  and  measures  affecting  the  commerce  of 
the  country,  both  domestic  and  foreign,  acted  upon  by  that 
committee,  no  bill  being  reported  which  he  had  not  fully 
understood  by  personal  investigation. 

Among  the  important  measures  instituted  and  reported  by 
that  committee,  were  those  relating  to  the  improvement  of  har- 
bors, rivers,  and  lakes,  the  whole  system  of  light-houses,  the 
protection  of  passengers  on  steam  and  sailing  vessels,  the  loca- 
tion and  establishment  of  custom-houses,  the  fixing  of  ports  of 
entry  and  delivery,  the  measures  connected  with  the  coast- 
Burvey,  and  everything  relating  to  commerce  in  all  its  ramifi- 
cations. As  before  briefly  intimated,  the  very  important  act 
"  for  the  better  security  of  the  lives  of  passengers  on  board  of 
vessels  impelled  in  whole  or  in  part  by  steam,"  passed  in  Au- 
gust, 1852,  was  reported  to  the  Senate  by  Mr.  Davis,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, but  was  prepared  by  Mr.  Hamlin  and  Mr.  Davis, 
jointly,  and  was  sustained  by  the  former  in  several  speeches 
in  the  Senate.  During  all  the  time  subsequent  to  the  passage 
of  the  bill,  while  Mr.  Hamlin  was  chairman,  all  the  amenda- 
tory acts  in  relation  to  that  subject  have  been  reported  and 
supported  by  him,  and  he  has  had  in  charge  the  bill  lately 
passed  by  the  House  on  the  same  subject.  Certainly  there  is 
not  one  of  the  board  of  supervising  inspectors,  appointed  under 
these  laws,  who  will  not  bear  testimony  to  the  laborious  inves- 
tigation and  practical  ability  displayed  by  Senator  Hamlin  in 
this  important  matter. 


212  LIFE   OP   HANNIBAL    HAMLIN. 

The  bill  regulating  the  liabilities  of  ship-owners  was  reported 
by  Mr.  Hamlin  at  the  second  session  of  the  31st  Congress, 
and  was  carried  through  the  Senate  mainly  by  his  efforts. 
This  bill  placed  American  navigation  on  the  same  footing  with 
British  navigation,  and  was  deemed  by  American  merchants 
to  be  of  very  great  importance.  Of  so  much  consequence  was 
it  considered  in  New  York,  that  the  merchants  of  that  city 
tendered  him  a  public  dinner,  as  a  testimonial  of  their  appre- 
ciation of  his  services  in  procuring  that  enactment.  This 
honor  he  declined. 

The  codification  of  the  revenue  laws,  in  pursuance  of  a  reso- 
lution introduced  by  him,  has  been  previously  mentioned.  It 
was  also  through  Mr.  Hamlin's  efforts  that  appropriations  were 
made  for  the  construction  of  the  various  custom-houses  which 
have  been  built  within  the  last  ten  years,  to  wit :  at  Cincinnati, 
St.  Louis,  Chicago,  Wheeling,  Bangor,  Belfast,  Portsmouth, 
Galveston,  Georgetown,  Milwaukee,  Norfolk,  and  more  than 
twenty  others  in  different  parts  of  the  country.  It  was  a  pro- 
viso of  his,  in  all  cases,  that  the  cost  of  construction  should 
not  exceed  the  amount  appropriated.  His  elaborate  and  able 
speeches  on  the  Fishery  question  have  been  noticed,  and  his 
support  to  the  Ocean  Mail  service,  as  auxiliary  to  the  com- 
merce of  the  country.  An  important  report  was  made  by  him 
on  this  subject,  exhibiting  the  commercial  relations  between 
the  United  States  and  Brazil.  He  has  reported  many  bills  for 
river  and  harbor  improvements,  and  made  speeches  in  their 
favor,  having  always  been  a  decided  friend  of  a  general  system 
of  this  kind. 

In  his  speech  on  Oregon  affairs,  while  a  member  of  the 
House  (before  noted),  he  showed  himself  a  progressive,  if  not 
a  prophetic,  statesman,  having  indicated,  thus  early,  a  Pacific 
railroad,  and  predicted  the  establishment  of  great  commercial 
States  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

At  the  time  of  his  speech  in  favor  of  a  graduation  in  the 
price  of  the  public  lands  (in  1846),  he  was  not  a  supporter  of 
the  Homestead  policy,  but  for  several  years  past  he  has  earn- 
estly and  decidedly  sustained  that  measure.  He  favored  the 
bills  appropriating  land  in  aid  of  agricultural  colleges,  and  for 


LIFE   OF   HANNIBAL    HAMLIN.  213 

the  benefit  of  the  indigent  insane,  both  of  which  were  vetoed 
by  Democratic  Presidents. 

As  a  party  man,  Mr.  Hamlin  voted  for  the  Tariff  of  1846, 
although  personally  in  favor  of  specific  duties.  On  that 
question  he  now  stands  with  the  Republican  party. 

Mr.  Hamlin's  views  and  record  on  the  slavery  question 
have  been  distinctly  indicated.  In  voting  against  the  noted 
"  Twenty-first  Rule,"  prohibiting  the  reception  of  Abolition 
petitions,  at  the  first  session  of  his  Congressional  service  (in 
January,  1844),  he  was  one  of  the  earliest  of  Northern  Dem- 
ocrats to  take  decided  ground  againt  Southern  exactions. 
Previously,  no  considerable  number  of  that  party  had  voted 
against  this  rule ;  but  on  this  occasion  twenty  or  thirty  of  his 
Northern  political  associates  voted  with  him.  He  voted 
against  the  annexation  of  Texas,  after  having,  with  forty-five 
others,  voted  for  a  division  of  the  State,  by  a  North  and  South 
line,  with  slavery  prohibited  in  the  Western  part — a  propo- 
sition made  by  Mr.  (now  Judge)  Brinkerhoff,  of  Ohio.  From 
that  day  to  the  present  his  opposition  to  the  extension  of 
slavery  has  been  firm  and  consistent. 

His  connection  with  the  famous  "  Wilmot  Proviso"  de- 
serves to  be  more  particularly  noticed.  While  the  bill  was 
pending  in  the  House,  known  as  the  Three  Million  Bill, 
appropriating  that  amount  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  the 
Mexican  war  to  a  close,  there  was  a  conference  among  certain 
members  of  the  House  —  all  Democrats  —  among  whom  were 
David  Wilmot,  Preston  King,  George  Rathbun,  Mr.  Hamlin, 
and  others,  who  desired  that  there  should  be  a  proviso  added 
to  the  bill  inhibiting  slavery  in  all  territory  which  should  be 
acquired  by  virtue  of  the  appropriation  ;  and  it  was  agreed 
that  this  proviso  should  be  moved  by  Mr.  Wilmot.  The  pro- 
vision was  printed,  and  notice  given  by  that  gentleman,  that 
he  should  offer  it.  At  the  time  when  it  became  necessary  to 
introduce  the  proviso  Mr.  Wilmot  was  absent,  and  Mr.  Ham- 
lin, after  an  ineffectual  attempt  by  Preston  King,  offered  the 
amendment  which  has  since  been  known  as  the  Wilmot  Pro- 
viso,    As  moved  by  Mr.  Hamlin  for  the  first  time,  the  proviso 


214  LIFE    OF    HANNIBAL    HAMLIN, 

was  carried   by  a   vote  of  115    against  106.     Among  those 
voting  in  the  affirmative  was   Abraham  Lincoln,  of  Illinois* 

As  a  member  of  the  State  Legislature  of  Maine,  in  1847, 
Mr.  Hamlin  reported,  from  a  committee  of  which  he  was 
chairman,  a  series  of  resolutions  against  the  extension  of 
slavery,  and  supported  them  in  an  earnest  and  effective  speech. 
They  were  adopted  in  the  House  (numbering  over  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  members)  with  only  six  or  seven  votes  in  oppo- 
Bition.  His  subsequent  speeches  on  this  subject  in  the  Sen- 
ate, of  which  he  became  a  member  in  May,  1857,  have  been 
particularly  alluded  to.  That  which  he  made  on  resigning  his 
place  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Commerce,  before 
given  in  full,  affords  a  just  view  of  his  position  on  this  ques- 
tion during  his  entire  Senatorial  session. 

Mr.  Hamlin  is  about  six  feet  in  bight,  though  apparently 
less,  in  consequence  of  his  having  a  slight  stoop.  His  ath- 
letic and  robust  form  gives  a  just  indication  of  his  great  phys- 
ical energy  and  power  of  endurance.  His  complexion  is 
dark,  and  his  eyes  are  of  a  piercing  blackness.  His  voice  is 
clear,  strong,  and  melodious  in  its  tones,  and  his  deliA^ery 
rapid,  energetic,  and  highly  effective.  He  speaks  without 
verbal  preparation,  but  without  any  embarrassment,  and  with 
remarkable  directness.  Always  talking  to  the  point,  and 
never  for  mere  effect,  he  is  invariably  listened  to  with  respect 
and  attention.  As  a  popular  orator,  Mr.  Hamlin  has  great 
power  and  eloquence.  He  has  addressed  more  public  assem- 
blies, undoubtedly,  than  any  other  person  of  his  own  State. 
After  the  election  in  Maine,  in  September,  1856,  the  remark- 
able results  of  which,  under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Hamlin, 
have  been   noticed,  he   spent  a  month  in   Pennsylvania  and 


*  Mr.  LixcoLX,  in  liis  Peoria  speech,  of  1854,  thus  stated  his  own 
action  on  the  question  :  "  In  December,  1847,  the  new  Congress  assem- 
bled. I  was  in  the  lower  House  that  term.  The  'Wilraot  Proviso,'  or 
the  principle  of  it,  was  constantly  coming  up,  in  some  shape  or  other, 
and  I  think  I  may  venture  to  say,  I  voted  for  it  at  least  forty  times  dur- 
ing the  single  term  I  was  there.  The  Senate,  however,  held  it  in  check, 
and  it  never  became  a  law." 


LIFE   OF   HANNIBAL    HAMLIN.  215 

New  York,  speaking  almost  daily.  He  has  also  rendered 
important  and  extensive  service,  of  tlie  same  kind,  in  New 
Hampshire  and  Connecticut. 

The  manners  of  Mr.  Hamlin,  although  dignified  and  decor- 
ous, have  the  elements  of  republican  simplicity.  He  preserves 
this  simplicity  in.  his  style  of  living,  at  Washington,  and  at  his 
home  on  the  Penobscot,  where  he  cultivates  his  small  farm 
vith  his  own  hands,  laboring  on  it  every  summer  with  all  the 
regularity  and  vigor  of  his  youthful  days.  In  his  moral  charac- 
ter, Mr.  Hamlin  is  wholly  without  reproach,  and  in  his  domestic 
relations  he  is  most  devoted  and  affectionate.  But  perhaps 
the  most  distinguishing  moral  trait  of  Mr.  Hamlin's  character, 
is  his  fidelity  to  his  friends.  He  never  forgets  a  favor  or  a 
kindness,  however  slight.  The  many  honors  which  he  has 
received,  arc  regarded  by  him  not  as  tributes  due  to  his  indi- 
vidual worth,  but  as  personal  ftivors  which  demand  personal 
gratitude.  This  trait  of  generous  appreciativeness  has  not 
mei'ely  made  Mr.  Hamlin  popular,  but  has  caused  him  to  be 
beloved  as  perhaps  no  other  public  man,  in  his  own  State,  has 
ever  been.  He  is  yet  in  the  prime  and  vigor  of  his  days,  not 
having  completed  his  fifty-first  year.  He  has  probably  a  long 
public  career  before  him,  to  which  his  past  services  are  com- 
paratively but  the  beginning. 

Mr.  Hamlin's  felicitous  and'appropriate letter,  accepting  the 
Kepublican  nomination  for  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States,  is  here  subjoined  : 

Washington,  May  30,  1860. 

Gentlemen: — Your  ofiicial  communication  of  the  18th 
instant,  informing  me  that  the  representatives  of  the  Repub- 
lican party  of  the  United  States,  assembled  at  Chicago,  on  that 
day,  had,  by  a  unanimous  vote,  selected  me  as  their  candidate 
for  the  office  of  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  has  been 
received,  together  with  the  resolutions  adopted  by  the  Conven- 
tion as  its  declaration  of  principles. 

Those  resolutions  enunciate  clearly  and  forcibly  the  princi- 
ples which  unite  us,  and  the  objects  proposed  to  be  accom- 
plished. They  address  themselves  to  all,  and  there  is  neither 
necessity  nor  propriety  in  my  entering  upon  a  discussion  of 
any  of  them.  They  have  the  approval  of  my  judgment,  and 
in  any  action  of  mine,  will  be  faithfully  and  cordially  sustained. 


216  LIFE   OF   HANNIBAL    HAMLIN. 

I  am  profoundly  grateful  to  those  with  whom  it  is  my  pride 
and  pleasure  politically  to  co-operate,  for  the  nomination  so 
unexpectedly  conferred ;  and  I  desire  to  tender,  through  you, 
to  the  members  of  the  Convention,  my  sincere  thanks  for  the 
confidence  thus  reposed  in  me.  Should  the  nomination  which 
I  now  accept,  be  ratified  by  the  people,  and  the  duties  devolve 
on  me  of  presiding  over  tlie  Senate  of  the  United  States,  it 
will  be  my  earnest  endeavor  faithfully  to  discharge  them  with 
a  just  regard  for  the  rights  of  all. 

It  is  to  be  observed,  in  connection  with  the  doings  of  the 
Republican  Convention,  that  a  paramount  object  with  us  is  to 
preserve  the  normal  condition  of  our  Territorial  domain,  as 
homes  for  free  men.  The  able  advocate  and  defender  of 
Republican  principles,  whom  you  have  nominated  for  the 
highest  place  that  can  gratify  the  ambition  of  man,  comes 
from  a  State  which  has  been  made  what  it  is  by  special  action 
in  that  respect  of  the  wise  and  good  men  who  founded  our 
institutions.  The  rights  of  free  labor  have  been  there  vindi- 
cated and  maintained.  The  thrift  and  enterprise  which  so 
distinguish  Illinois,  one  of  the  most  flourishing  States  of  the 
glorious  West,  we  would  see  secured  to  all  the  Territories  of  the 
Union  ;  and  restore  peace  and  harmony  to  the  whole  country, 
by  bringing  back  the  Government  to  what  it  was  under  the 
wise  and  patriotic  men  who  created  it.  If  the  Republicans 
shall  succeed  in  that  object,  as  they  hope  to,  they  will  be  held 
in  grateful  remembrance  by  the  busy  and  teeming  millions  of 
future  ages. 

I  am,  very  truly,  yours,  H.  Hamlin. 

The  Hon.  (tEORGE  AsHMim,  President  of  the  Convention,  and 
others  of  the  Committee. 


3 


Cf 


S'Slt'SYh'i-*^  ^/«--^  days 
A  path  thiSk  sefwiSThaS^^r  ""fl  ^^ee'creep; 
Slopes  downward  toth^^i^^  ^°'^  decays,       ^' 
And  they  who  walked  wifc°^-  '^^'"0"  s'eep; 

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